Skyward Sword Remix
by Wingscutdarkness
Summary: Just when Mia thinks her day, filled with long road trips, camping, and pesky little brothers, couldn't possibly get any worse, she's unexpectedly thrown into Skyward Sword and finds herself having to deal with Groose, her fear of heights, and a certain, creepy Demon Lord, who will NOT stop with the tounge. OC!
1. Creepy Obsessions and Weird Voices

**A/N: I guess this can sort of be read independently as long as you know that Mia knows Toon Link because she's somehow magically been to Spirit Tracks world. If you don't know that, then now you do. And if you're still confused, go read Spirit Tracks Remix. But I warn you: it's mary sue-ish.  
I'm hoping this one won't be nearly as much so. Okay. Anyways~**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Mia, I guess.**

**Chapter One: Creepy Obsessions and Weird Voices**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\

On the first day of my spring break, I was playing Skyward Sword and minding my own business when my little brother jumped out from behind the couch and nearly scared the living *NAVI* out of me.

"Mia! Guess what!"

"Augh!" I jumped and almost lost my grip on the remote, accidentally causing Link to dive off his bird. "Zack!" I glared at Zach and pressed the down button on the Wii remote to save Link from plummeting to certain death.

"Guess what!" Zach grinned, his nose crinkling in that adorable, yet annoying way of his.

"...You're finally over your creepy Adventure Time obsession?"

"Nope. We're going camping!"

I settled back on the couch and started untangling the nunchuck cord. "Oh. Well, have fun."

"That's not even the best part!"

I froze upon hearing the dreaded tone of impishness in his voice that could only mean that the worst was yet to come.

"You're coming with us!"

Told you so.

"Oh no. I am NOT!"

"Actually..." My mom said, coming out of the kitchen and wiping her hands on a dishtowel.

"What?" I exploded. I've been hit with some fairly atrocious short notice bombs in my life, but this was just ridiculous. "You know I detest camping!" Actually, detest was an understatement. Psh. It ranked right up there along with dentists and sour skittles.

"I wanted to surprise you. It's a family reunion as much as a camping trip." Mom replied, going to the closet and pulling out a large cooler bag. "Your Auntie Ella and Uncle Jackson are coming, and they're bringing your cousins! Even Grandma and Grandpa are pulling out the old RV!"

"Yes, all people who live, like, within ten blocks of us." I rolled my eyes, desperately trying to conjure up an escape plan of some sort.

"Mia, you should go get ready. And don't bring your laptop. The whole purpose of this trip, besides seeing your relatives, is to take a break from everything, okay?"

"Yeah, and while you're staring at nature I'll be trying to hitch a ride back to civilization." I muttered, sticking the Wii remote in my pocket before hauling myself off of the couch and trudging down the hall to my room.

Zack trotted after me. "Oh no, Mia. However will you survive?" He grinned.

"No electronics goes for both of you!" Mom shouted after us.

I smirked. But Zach just grinned and flounced away down the hallway, humming that ANNOYING theme song about dogs and Finns and whatever else was in that scary show he always watched.

.+.+.

In my room, I stuffed an old Final Fantasy backpack full of various stuff and bug spray. Cloud's blue eyes stared dully up at me as I zipped it shut, and I paused to frown miserably at him before quickly flipping my laptop open and signing into this new chat thing I had gotten, where my friend Jackie was waiting.

We ranted to each other for a while about little brothers and the evil outdoors and the creepiness of spiders, and the annoyingness of moms who dragged you along with them to the evil outdoors where all those creepy spiders lived, until my mom yelled at me.

"Mia! Meet you outside! Be sure to lock the door, please!"

I flicked the power switch, sighed, and left my laptop on my bed, looking around the room I had spent most of my childhood in really carefully. Just in case I never came back.

And so it began.

It always sucks driving through the seemingly endless, flat, boring land on the way to the traditional camping site, which is deep in some forest. It's kind of funny, how I've been there so many times, yet never can remember the name of the place. Does that tell you anything about how much I LOVE camping?

I stared out the grimy, bug-splattered windshield, a scowl on my face.

"Mia, it's only one week," My mom said for the third time since we left the apartment building. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel along with some stupid 60's song playing on the radio.

I refused to answer.

"This is going to be so awesome!" Zack crowed from the back seat.

"See Mia? Zack's excited!" My mother beamed.

Great, great. I pulled out my Ipod and for the rest of the drive, refused to think about what horror may await me. Instead, I fumed about not being able to bring my laptop. I probably wouldn't have been able to get internet out here, but I could have been working on various random stories saved on my desktop; the offspring of particularly vicious little plot bunnies.

Finally, FINALLY, we got to the gates of the national park place and passed through with little problems, except that my foot was asleep and Zack had just lobbed his foam football at it. Whoever had the nerve to come up with Nerf stuff deserves to have Marth's final smash violently unleashed upon them.

"Stick this on the windshield, would you?" My mother said, handing me the sticker thing that proves that we paid so we wouldn't get towed or fined or whatever.

"Hmm hmmm HMMM! Hmm hm hm HMM hmm!" Zack started hummed an unknown song.

I felt like banging my head against the dashboard until I either fell into a coma, Mom agreed to take us home, or both.

Miraculously, upon getting to our camp site, we somehow managed to set the tent up without losing any of those peg things this time. After that, I retreated inside to contemplate the injustice of the world, while Zack and Mom went 'exploring,' even though we had been here so many times that there was nothing really new to be explored.

I stared up at the ceiling of the tent. Our relatives were supposed to meet us here, and they seemed to be late. Not that I was surprised. It's kind of a family curse; either we're really late for something, or we get the wrong day.

"Hey Mia! Look what I found!" Zack stuck his head inside the tent. I looked up to see him waving my golden Wii remote.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was on the ground beside your seat in the car."

Oh. I had forgotten about putting it in my pocket earlier.

"Do you think it would attract any fish?" Zach asked innocently. "It is really bright and shiny."

I rolled over and made a swipe at him but he pulled his head out of the tent before I could inflict any pain. "Zack! Bring that back!" I struggled with the zipper on the tent, finally getting the stupid thing open enough that I could crawl outside.

A few feet away, Zach waved the remote at me. "Come and get it!" He laughed before turning and heading into the forest.

Normally I wouldn't make a big deal over a remote. But THIS specific remote was Wii motion plus, which I needed to play Skyward Sword, which I haven't beaten yet.

I jumped up and sprinted after my brother. Bushes and various weeds scratched my mosquito repellent-slathered ankles, and I couldn't really see much through all the thick pine tree branches that kept getting in my way. On top of that, Zack was wearing a dark green sweater; exactly the color of most of the trees.

I spat a bug out of my mouth, batted a branch out of my face, and caught sight of Zack crouching a little ways in front of me, probably doing something obnoxious. I narrowed my eyes and hurtled forwards, only to realize that I had mistaken him for a bush, which filled my hands with prickles...and also hid the edge of a treacherous-looking ravine. I teetered on the edge for a few precarious seconds.

"Ugh, Zack! You're SO going to pay for thiiiiiiiiiis!" I yelled as I fell, noticing he had appeared above me, wide-eyed and still holding my remote.

"Mia!" He said, or at least I thought he said. "Mia, wake up!"

Despite being in the process of falling to certain injury and occasionally scraping against rocks and other obstacles that stuck out from the steep side of the ravine, I managed a frown as a weird, blueish light started to surround me in little wisps. The wisps wisped around my head all wisp-like, and then started to multiply and block out the beautifully terrifying nature-filled world around me.

...And, also the small river at the bottom of the ravine which I seemed to be heading for.

"I am awake, you moron!" I retorted, dismissing the weird wispiness as a result of hitting my head or something.

"There is need of your immense knowledge of a land far away, in another world."

"Oh! Well, I guess I'll just sprout wings and fly there." I shouted, wondering why I could still hear his odder than normal-sounding voice. and why he was saying strange stuff. And also why I was still falling. I should have hit that river by now. Unless I had, and was now on my way to the afterlife or something.

"Mia. Do not fear." The weird voice said. "The quest I am sending you on will lead you to the sky. Go to Skyloft and find Fi. She will aid you in the awakening of the Hero of Legend. Go now. Only through your knowledge of the world you are about to enter, will you find a means of return."

"What?" I sputtered, as the light thinned, white, feathery shapes appearing through the fading blue wisps. Clouds?

I was silent. My limbs automatically spayed out in a skydiving position. My hair flew all around my face due to a strong, cold wind that seemed to come out of nowhere. And then I realized that I was no longer falling into the ravine. Rather, I was falling through sky.

My heart jumped up into my throat and I flailed around in a panic. "Ahhh! Ahhhhh! W-what just happened?"

The mysterious voice that had been talking to me earlier didn't answer.

The weightless feeling of free-falling made me want to throw up. The wind attacked my eyes, and tears ran up my face. I blinked hard, and then noticed some small, moving shapes below me. I squinted at them as I fell closer, and realized that they were birds, brightly colored birds with huge wingspans. And riders. What the...

With mild concern, I noticed one flying directly underneath me, its rider being someone with a shock of red hair. And the current course I was on looked like we would collide some time very soon.

"Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhhhhh!"


	2. Eggs and Screams

**Chapter Two: Eggs and Screams**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Groose  
/\/\/\/\/\/\

The wind whistled loudly in his ears as Groose gripped the harness tightly and directed his Loftwing in a sharp turn to the left and in front of Link. Link pulled up in alarm, consequently loosing speed.

Groose surged ahead. "Cawlin! Strich!" He yelled to his two lackeys, who had risen on their Loftwings to flank him on both sides, forming a wall of sorts that would undoubtedly cause more problems for Link. "Where's that bird?"

The three surveyed the skies, searching for the statuette-carrying bird. Obtaining said statue, would result in winning the Wing Ceremony would give Groose an opportunity to ridicule Link, and also a chance to be alone with Zelda for once.

When he won, Zelda's blue eyes would focus on him for a change, and not that shrimpy excuse for a knight that was Link. She would lead Groose to the statue of The Goddess to perform the rest of the ceremony, and then when they were finally all alone, he would-

"KEEEYAH!"

Groose was interrupted from his pleasant daydream by Link, who had urged his Crimson Loftwing forward with a cry and was now streaking overhead.

"Go get him Groose!" Strich yelled.

"We've got you covered!" Cawlin grinned and reached into the pouch tied around his waist, pulling out two gleaming, white eggs.

Groose grinned and pushed his Loftwing into a steep dive to gain speed. As he got closer, he saw that Link had pulled right alongside the bird and risen in a half-crouch, stretching his arm out to grab the statue. Then Cawlin gave a whoop and lobbed a slew of eggs down on the surprise Skyloftian and Link fell heavily back onto his bird in surprise.

"Ahh!" He shouted, as egg goo dripped over his hair and into his eyes.

Groose snickered and pulled his Loftwing around and streaked towards the golden bird, specifically, the bird statue the golden bird was holding in its talons. But as he got closer and closer to the statuette which was right there, _right there_, his dreams were shattered by a shrill scream.

"Ahh! Ahhhh! Ahhhhh!"

Groose frowned and looked around.

And then a girl unexpectedly fell out of the sky, and landed directly on his Loftwing.

The Loftwing gave a squawk and began to drop. Groose himself almost fell, but managed to grab on to the harness with one hand while the mysterious dropee slid down the side of his bird and clutched at his ankle for dear life.

"Ahhhh! Ahhh!" She shrieked. He looked down and saw her staring at his hair, her expression a combination of recognition and horror.

"What th'-?" Groose exclaimed, swinging himself back onto his Loftwing and giving the command to rise once he had recovered. "What's th' meanin' of you falling out of th' sky? Were's your Loftwing?" He demanded as the unfamiliar girl grabbed his ankle with her other hand.

"I don't HAVE a Loftwing!" She yelled, her hair whipping around her smudged, dirty, and terrified face. "I don't even know what I'm doing here!"

"...Oh, yeah? Well, that's not my problem, and you're messin' up my chances of-"

"Hey, Boss!" Strich called. "Trouble!"

Groose looked up to see Link a little ways away, smiling and waving the prize statue cheekily at him.

"What!" Groose spluttered in disbelief. "You-!"

Link grinned and Groose glared down at the girl and shook his ankle. With a startled cry, she lost her grip. Satisfied, Groose started to charge after Link, but stopped when he realized how close Link was to Skyloft, and how useless it would be to attempt pursuit.

Cawlin and Strich came to join him, woeful expressions on both of their faces.

"You...you...idiots!" Groose exploded, causing them to jump. "This is all your fault! You were close enough that you could of...you could of..."

Link had won. Unthinkable. That puny shrimp was going to get Zelda all to himself now.

"Uh, Groose..."

"WHAT?"

Strich cringed. "Ah, I just thought that maybe...um...uh...

"What he means to say," Cawlin hastily took over, "Is...how could it be our fault? We were just sticking to the plan that YOU made up."

"...Well, it has t' be someone's fault." Groose muttered.

"Like that girl who fell on your head?" Strich asked.

Groose looked down. The cause of his problems had become a small, dark speck against the clouds. He had lost. After DAYS of carefully planning everything out, he had LOST. All because of some idiot who decided to drop in. Literally. "I'm sure whoever she is, she'll call her Loftwing eventually." He growled.

"Dude...maybe we should go get her." Cawlin said eventually.

"Hmph."

"Dude, seriously." Cawlin persisted. "It wouldn't be very good if...like...she died or something."

"Yeah, you could get...you could sued...!" Stritch added.

Groose considered this for a moment. And then with a growl of irritation, spun around and urged his bird into a steep dive.

The girl gave a startled jolt when Groose's Loftwing plucked her out of the air, and Groose thought that the look of recognition in her eyes was sort of strange, seeing he didn't recognize HER.

"Holy- What- What the-" She stuttered, scrabbling to get a hold of the Loftwing talon clasped around her middle as they flew back towards Skyloft.

Groose glared down at her. "Alright, who are you? And you better start talkin', because your crazy antics just cost me th' Wing Ceremony!"

"I...M-my name is Mia." She mumbled as they lit on the edge diving platform on the side of the island opposite to where the Wing Ceremony was taking place. Groose's Loftwing released her with a squawking noise and she staggered forwards and fell against a nearby tree. She looked up and froze."G-Groose? Is this...is this...Skyloft?"

"Well, where else would it be?" Groose said gruffly, somewhat unsettled by hearing his name coming from someone he had never seen before in his life, and had...twigs sticking out of her messy hair.

"...This can't be really happening." Mia mumbled, looking like she was about to start hyperventilating. "I just fell in the river and hit my head and now I'm hallucinating. I'm really lying in the hospital, hooked up to a bunch of machines and some of those drugs are giving me weird dreams, and-" Her expression was changing from fright, to awe, to something very much like horror as she looked around.

Groose climbed back on his Loftwing.

"No, wait!" She said, spinning around towards him. "Do you...do you..." She hesitated. "Do you know where Link is?"

Having the displeasure of being reminded YET AGAIN of what was now happening between Link and Zelda, Groose gave his Loftwing a sharp kick. Emotions, mostly unpleasant, darkened his vision, and within moments, Skyloft was rapidly growing smaller in the distance.


	3. A Girl, A Harp, And A Sailcloth

**A/N: Lame chapter name is lame.**

**Chapter Three: A girl, a harp, and a sailcloth**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Zelda  
/\/\/\/\/\

Zelda stood on the edge of the diving platform, alternating between standing on the balls of her feet and rocking back on her heels as she scanned the skies.

An annual event, the Wing Ceremony was held on Skyloft for the students enrolled in the Knight Academy. It consisted of a competition, where the participants mounted their Loftwings and chased after a golden bird carrying a bird statuette. The one who claimed the statue first, would be declared winner, advance to the next class level at the academy, and take part in the following ceremony, where they would play the part of the Goddess's Hero.

Zelda herself had been chosen that year to play the part of the Goddess, Hylia. She was given a knee-length, soft pink dress, and an even more beautiful golden instrument called a 'harp'. It had strange patterns painted on the sides, and many strings, which, when strummed, produced a near-perfect stream of notes that reminded Zelda of a waterfall or a running river.

She had gotten up early to rehearse her lines and put the finishing touches on the handmade sailcloth she had worked hard to finish before the day of the race. Said sailcloth would be presented to the victor high on top of the Statue of the Goddess, which was found at the northernmost point of Skyloft. Zelda could only hope that it would be Link who she would be performing the ceremony with, although worry creased her brow.

Upon waking up earlier that morning, and merely a few hours before the race, Link had discovered that his Loftwing was missing. Zelda had immediately suspected Groose, as it was the redhead's tendency to pick on Link. Whether he did this out of jealousy or annoyance, or just because he was bigger than Link, Zelda didn't know. She DID know that with some snooping around, she was bound to find some hint tied to the missing bird.

She had called to her own blue Loftwing, and flown around Skyloft for some time, before Pipit, one of the upperclassmen, told her that someone had heard Groose and his friends talking about hiding Link's bird near the waterfall. Zelda had quickly directed her bird behind the flow of water, which inexplicably trickled from Skyloft and into the sky below. Much to her relief, she had found Link freeing his imprisoned Loftwing from a small cave. Although relieved, Zelda was quite furious at Groose, and had vowed to have a talk with him later.

_Although_, she thought to herself now as she watched the small shapes darting around the sky, _It's likely that I'll just be wasting my breath._

Groose would probably just smile goofily like always, his tawny eyes half-closed, like whenever she tried to talk to him about something serious.

Zelda rolled her eyes and mulled over her certain classmates' stupidity, then glanced up, her attention caught by a figure that was rapidly coming closer. She squinted; her expression of irritation turning to one of happiness, because Link was proudly waving the statuette at her. Link, not Groose.

"Link!" Zelda laughed in relief. Completely confident that her childhood friend, she gathered her harp and waited for Link to pass beneath her before leaping off the platform and falling straight into his outstretched arms.

"Zelda!" Link protested with a worried look.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine!" She smiled as Link's bird carried them over to the Statue of the Goddess.

The massive stone statue rose into the sky and was shaped like the Hylia the old texts spoke of with her eyes closed, and folded wings protruding from her back.

"Great flying Link." Zelda congratulated, hopping off the Loftwing onto the smooth, circular platform, which was held securely in both hands of the statue. "Now, we better get on with the ceremony, so hand me the bird statue."

Link nodded and handed the little bird over. Zelda took and placed it in a small crevice in the statue, offering it to the Goddess, before taking out her harp, and closing her eyes before plucking gently at the strings with her fingers.

_Oh youth, guided by the servant of the goddess...unite earth and sky...bring light to the land..._

The words floated through her mind as she played, although she did not sing. Zelda felt a little strange whenever she played the golden harp, which was said to have been used by the Goddess in legends. Her feelings were sort of happy and sad at the same time. Like finally returning home after a long journey, only to find that you missed the freedom and excitement of adventure.

She'd been having the strangest feelings and thoughts lately...

When she was finished playing Zelda opened her eyes and placed her harp by her feet, holding out her hand.

Link knelt and bowed his head, placing his hand in her own as Zelda began to speak.

"Great Goddess, guiding light and protector of our people. Grant us your blessing and mercy as I act in your stead."

A faint, sweet smell seemed to fill the air and, above their heads, the Loftwings circled, stray feathers of blue and red drifting down all around them.

"Valiant youth, who grasped victory, in tradition of our old ways, I now bestow the blessings of the Goddess upon you." Zelda released Link's hand and untied the white cloth draped about her shoulders, folding and handing it to Link. "The blessings of the Goddess drift down from the heavens aloft a sail, which I now pass on to you. Now you can jump from any height without fear of a painful landing. Isn't that exciting?" She beamed as Link took the sailcloth. "You know...they say that the Goddess gave the sailcloth to her chosen hero long ago Of course, the one you're holding isn't the same one, but I've worked hard to finish making this Sailcloth in time to give it to today's champion. And..." Zelda paused. Link looked up, his azure eyes searching her face questioningly. "...I'm really glad I got to give it to you, Link. Take good care of it, okay?"

"I bet you're glad that it's me that won, and not Groose, huh?" Link grinned, his hands going to his hair and pushing it up into a mockery of Groose's. " 'You lay off my do right now or I'll pound you! Everyone know's I've got the sickest pompadour in town!' " He growled in a surprisingly accurate imitation of his brawny classmate.

"Link, quit goofing. This is supposed to be a sacred ritual, remember?" Zelda scolded, but couldn't hold back a laugh at Link's now wildly messed up hair. "We should really finish up the ceremony now." She giggled, stepping closer to Link. "You...you do know what happens at the end, right?"

"Um...sort of?" Link blinked as she stepped even closer. Zelda studied him for a moment, amused, her face inches from his. Then she spun him around and pushed him closer to the edge.

"You have to jump off the statue!" She announced gleefully, knowing perfectly well that that had not been what Link was expecting.

"What?" Link eyed the ground a couple hundred feet below him. The blades of grass looked like fuzzy, green hairs.

"Oh don't be so scared! See that big, round design on the courtyard below? To finish the ceremony, you need to drop into the center of it. Just jump off the edge, position yourself, and open your sailcloth. Ready...?" Zelda didn't wait for a reply but placed both hands on Link's back and merrily gave him a shove.

The wind carried away his surprised shout. Zelda peered down, smiling with relief when she saw him successfully open the sailcloth and float gently down. She whistled for her Loftwing and joined Link on the ground.

"I thought you said jump!" Link panted once landing. "Not 'be pushed'!"

"Wasn't it more exciting that way?" Zelda dismounted and ran up to him, clasping her hands together. "That was great! You're amazing, Link!"

"Well, thanks." Link grinned at her, and Zelda grinned back.

"You know...seeing as you won today...and with the weather being so nice...do you want to go fly around the clouds together?"

.+.

Soon, they were well away from Skyloft, with the wind sweeping back their hair. Zelda looked over at Link, who was flying slightly higher and to her right. His eyes were closed, a faint smile flickering over his lips as he eagerly welcomed the air gusting in his face. He had always loved flying in the clouds.

Of course, so did she, but recently, she found her thoughts often wandering to what lay beneath the cloud barrier separating them from the Surface, as it was known in Skyloft.

Most doubted that there was anything down there at all, and some thought it nothing but a barren wasteland. Zelda herself, imagined something much more.

She had this relentless, nagging feeling that there was something significant down there, and one day, she was determined to find out what. She had often talked to Link about it, but he never took it as seriously as she hoped, which annoyed her slightly. She decided to bring it up again, hoping that he would actually listen to her, as he was the only one she felt she could talk to about those sorts of things.

"Link? Hey Link!" She called, raising her voice over the wind. Link slowly turned to look at her, his expression vacant, his eyes almost the exact color of the sky. "Today was amazing." She said, to give herself time to think of how to bring up the subject of the Surface. "Watching you win the race, and performing the ritual together...I'll always remember this."

Link smiled down at her.

Zelda hesitated. "You know...there's...something I've been meaning to talk to you about-"

She never got her chance, however, because there was a blinding flash of dark light, and a massive...tornado appeared, not ten feet away from them.

"What...what is that?" Zelda gasped in shock as the unnatural mass of twisting wind pulled her and her Loftwing closer. She huddled against her bird and attempted to pull up and out of there, but couldn't seem to move any direction except straight towards the storm. A sickly, yellowish light pierced her eyelids, and she shrieked as the wind tore her away from her Loftwing, sucking her further and further down towards the cloud barrier and stealing the air right out of her lungs.

"Zelda!" She heard Link cry after her, and the last thing she saw before falling unconscious was his horror-struck face high above her, and her harp, a speck of gold in the dark swirling winds.


	4. Stuck In The Sky

**A/N: This chapter was co-written with Toothsilver. C:**

**Chapter Four: Stuck In The Sky**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After Groose had taken off I stood leaning against a tree, my knees shaking as I tried to figure out what had just happened. One minute, I was falling into a ravine, the next, a freaky voice was telling me I was needed in another world, and now I appeared to be in freaking Skyloft. As in, Skyloft: Skyward Sword.

Suck in a video game again. Again! This was so weird.

I waited for my irregular breathing to return to normal before inching onto the nearby diving platform and carefully looking over the edge. Nothing but a dizzying drop to clouds, clouds and more fluffy clouds. The view made my head spin a little, and I hurriedly stepped back. Heights are not my strong point.

After thinking for a few minutes, I decided to do what the voice had told me, and go find Link, since he would lead me to Fi, If I remembered correctly.

Hey, when a freaky voice tells you to do something right before you're dumped in another world, you...do it, don't you?

Pulling a few twigs out of my hair, (twigs?) I started walking along the path heading towards the goddess statue, then stopped to survey the world I now found myself in. Like in Spirit Tracks, everything was considerably brighter, the colors way more intense than back on planet Earth, though there was less cel-shading. The air was warm, not freezing cold like it probably should have been. There was magically enough oxygen, considering we were thousands of feet above the ground. And a few feet away from me was a kid rolling into a tree over and over again, yet not getting knocked out.

While I was standing there pondering the wonders of video game world, a remlit with huge green eyes padded up to me. "Mew!"

"Gah!" I jumped back a few feet before I remembered that remlits only turn demonic in the night for some reason, and won't attack you during the day.

"Mew?" The remlit tilted its furry head.

"Don't you start that cute and cuddly act with me," I frowned. "I know all about what happens at night!"

The remlit mewed again.

"Yeah, I'm on to you. The whole psycho demon cat routine? Seen it!"

Someone coughed and I looked up to see the tree kid staring at me. His bright blue pants clashed rather horrendously with his long-sleeved yellow shirt and his brown hair was sticking in all directions.

"You're talking to a remlit." He brilliantly observed. "That's weird."

"Says the kid who rolling into a tree." I retorted. "Why are you doing that anyway?"

"I'm trying to get this stupid bug that's hiding up there." He turned and pointed at a branch with a stubby finger. I used that opportunity to extend my leg and casually kick the remlit off the nearby edge. The kid looked back at me. "No matter how many times you do that, they'll just keep coming back up, you know."

Stupid peripheral vision.

"What with its wings?" I grinned a bit, and then noticed that the remlit was rising slowly into the air, using its giant ears as wings.

The kid grinned. I watched, wide-eyed as the remlit mewed cheerfully before taking off, its ears flapping furiously to keep it up.

"What... what the... how does that even work?"

"What? You didn't know that remlits can fly?" The kid frowned.

"No..."

"Oh. Hey, you have round ears!" He suddenly noticed. "Where are you from?"

I touched my ear self-conciously. "Somewhere that I should probably be trying to find a way to get back to right now?"

"I have no intention of ramming myself into that tree, if that's what you're asking."

"Awww..." He sighed sadly. "First Fledge, then Link, and now you...I guess no one wants to help a poor little kid like me."

"...Really?" I rolled my eyes and walked over to him.

His forced expression of disappointment turned into a grin as I cupped both my hands and got into a half-crouch. "So you are gonna help me?"

"Yes. But hurry up, would ya?"

The kid obliged and stepped onto my hands, managing to scramble up onto the tree branch with a boost. The bug, a blue beetle or something immediately flew away, resulting in the kid making a grab for it, falling out of the tree, and landing hard on the dirt.

"Ow..." He pouted, then jumped up, and ran over and picked a...heart off of a thick, green stem sticking out of the ground. "Yay! Heart fruit!"

"That's a fruit?" I said curiously. Huh.

"Yup. Here!" He picked another one and handed it to me.

I cautiously turned the soft, red, heart-shaped fruit over in my hands.

"They taste like candy!" The kid encouraged, already halfway through his.

Seeing that he hadn't keeled over, I raised the fruit and took a small bite. It did, indeed taste sweet like candy. The texture was a strange mixture between a kiwi and a peach.

The kid grinned and wiped some juice off of his mouth with the back of his hand. "I'm Gully."

"Mia." I answered, just as a huge bird flew over our heads, stirring up the leaves on the tree and sending them whirling through the air.

A Loftwing. A bright red Loftwing, clutching a limp figure in its talons, who I suddenly realized must be Link.

This meant three things. One, I had failed to talk to Link before Zelda got snatched out of the sky by that _stupid_ tornado, so now he was unconscious from trying to save her. Two, he would remain so all day, stuck in the Academy until nightfall. Three, I would have to wait until night. With demonic remlits and bats. Unless...

I turned and started running after the Loftwing, and chased it all the way to the Knight Academy. My footsteps slowed as I got to the top of the stairs and saw that two of the instructors had raced outside to meet the bird. One of them, a tall dude with freakishly long silver hair, took Link and carried him inside, while an older guy who had joined them began interrogating the other. I think he was Zelda's father, Headmaster Gaepora. His monobrow was even scarier in person.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but Gaepora's frenzied hand gestures were getting even more frenzied, and the instructor responded by shaking his head. Both guys followed Silver Hair inside, slamming the door behind them before I could do anything.

"Great. Just great." I huffed, sitting down at the top of the stairs.

Gully came up and looked in the direction of where Link's receding Loftwing. "Wow. I wonder what happened."

"I'll tell you what happened. Zelda's down on the surface probably being hunted by monsters, Link's unconscious, Impa's going to yell at us for being late, and...and...Ghirahim!" I wailed.

"Oh. Uh, what?" Gully said, then scratched his head. "Were did you say you were from again?"

I dropped my head onto my arms and sat there for a while. Gully started fidgeting, and then finally grabbing onto my arm with his sticky hand and pulled me up, making good use of his heart-fruit induced strength.

"Whaugh!"

"What, you're just going to sit here all day?" He frowned. "Come on! I'll show you around Skyloft!"

"Aw, no that's not really necessary-" I protested weakly as I was dragged down the stairs.

"It's not like you have anything better to do!"

.+.

So I was given the grand tour of Skyloft from a nine-year old with an attitude.

We went all over, to the bazar tent, where the fortune-teller tried to tell me my fortune. To Gully's favorite climbing tree, where he persuaded me to climb up with him. To the waterfall, where water mysteriously trickled out of a rock and down into the sky. And finally, at the end of the day, to the one-eyed bird statue, where Gully poked and prodded the empty eye socket, his face screwed up in curiosity.

"I wonder if the other eye is around here somewhere."

"Mmm..."

"We could go look for it!" Gully suggested.

"Ahh...um...it's not..."

Gully looked at me strangely, and I sweat-dropped, not wanting to explain how I knew where the stone was and how to get it. "Aw, yeah, it's getting kind of late anyways." he said, and jumped down off of the statue.

"Yeah." I agreed, noticing the clouds taking on a pinkish tinge as the sun began to go down. I walked Gully to his house.

"Are you gonna be staying around here for a while?"

"...Probably not. I'm not really one to hang around, you know?"

"...Okay. Well, maybe you should take some heart fruit for the road. You know, just in case?" He grinned, opening the door. "I'll see ya, Mia."

"Bye, kid."

He waved, and closed the door behind him.

.+.

I stood there for a minute, then wandered over to the Knight Academy and sat down on a nearby bench as it grew rapidly darker. Within minutes any Skyloftians who had been outside were now inside, their doors closed, yellow squares of light shining through the windows. I tapped my foot impatiently and shivered, waiting for Link to come out like I knew he would soon.

.+.

Unknown to me, a remlit creeped closer and closer, still ticked at having been tossed off the edge.


	5. Follow Fi

**A/N: Chapter beta-read by Zzzp2. Who also came up with the breaking the forth wall idea.**

**Chapter Five: Follow Fi  
**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Link  
/\/\/\/\/\/\

Despite knowing in the back of his mind that he was unconscious, Link felt very much awake. He was falling through darkness. A darkness that gradually lightened as a blue light came out of nowhere. High above his head, a figure appeared, silhouetted against the light.

"Link..." It said. "Link, you are vital to a mission of great importance." The strange voice spoke again. "The time has come for you to awaken. Link, I am waiting for you."

The figure disappeared back into the light and Link heard a cry. He looked over and saw Zelda falling beside him, her face pale, and her blue eyes wide with fear.

Then a massive thing covered in tightly overlapping black scales suddenly reared up out of the darkness underneath her, and opened an enormous mouth filled with sharp teeth.

.+.

Link bolted upright, drenched in a cold sweat. His breath came in ragged gasps, and for a minute, he didn't know where he was. Then his vision cleared, and the darkness faded into the familiar surroundings of...his room at the academy. He was sitting on his bed. He clutched at the blankets with tight fists.

"Ah, you're awake." Zelda's father was sitting at Link's desk, poring through a thick, dusty-looking book. "When your Loftwing carried you back limp and unconscious, we all feared the worst. Fortunately, you don't seem to have any serious injuries."

It was just a dream, Link realized. But his heart still fluttered in his chest. And Zelda was still gone, snatched out of the sky.

Gaepora closed the book and stood, turning to face Link. His tall figure was stooped; his dark, piercing eyes holding no trace of their normal lively twinkle. "Where is Zelda? She was with you, was she not?"

With a heavy heart, Link told him everything he knew, starting with the ceremony and ending with Zelda being snatched out of the sky.

"A black tornado?" Gaepora eased his large self back into Link's chair.

Link reached over and began to pull on his boots, which had been placed on the floor beside his bed. His sword sheath was still strapped across his back, and he checked to make sure the sword was still there before rising wobbly to his feet.

Gaepora glanced at him gravely. "You must not push yourself when you are still recovering Link."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Link protested. The knot of worry in his chest was growing tighter as each minute passed.

"I'm concerned for Zelda, but as long as she's with her Loftwing, I'm sure she'll be fine." Gaepora said. "Either way, daybreak has yet to arrive. It would be very difficult to spot one girl and her bird in the dark of night. Not to mention dangerous."

Link fell heavily back on the bed, biting the inside of his cheek as worry continued to eat at him.

Gaepora rested his chin upon his chest, brooding. "Tell me, when you saw Zelda today, did anything seem...off?"

"Well..." Link thought for a minute. "She DID mention those weird feelings she's been having again. About the Surface."

"I see." Gaepora looked thoughtful.

Link thought of something else that might be of some interest and told Gaepora about his strange dream.

"So Zelda was talking about the surface again?" Gaepora asked. "And you've had dreams about a 'great mission'? How interesting." He stood, sliding his book somewhere within the massive folds of his robe. "I must study the ancients texts further, see what they speak about the Surface. Rest now Link. Zelda's going to be fine. She's out there alive, I know it."

Link wished Gaepora's confidence was contagious.

With one last desolate glance, the headmaster walked to the door and left the room, pulling the door shut gently behind him.

Hardly a minute had gone by before Link heard a strange, silvery noise come from outside his room. He raised his head as the noise came again. It sounded almost like a murmur. Curious, and a bit apprehensive, Link pushed himself off of his bed and cautiously opened the door.

Nobody was there. But by some providence, his head was turned just so, that a flicker caught his eye just before he closed the door and went back into his room.

Floating above the stairs that led to the second floor was a girl. She was small, and had long legs laced in black and green ribbons. In place of arms were what looked like fluttering wings. One was purple, matching the dress she wore, and the other was a bright blue. Her hair was short and reached her chin, tapering into a soft point at the top of her head. Her skin was the same shade of blue. A tiny diamond sparkled on her forehead, set a little higher than her expressionless eyes.

She was like nothing Link had ever seen before.

He stepped forwards, and the girl moved slightly away in response.

Mesmerized by the glowing light pulsating around her, Link hardly noticed his feet moving as she led him up the stairs and to the second floor. He hesitated, before walking cautiously down the hallway and stepping carefully past the closed doors on either side of him.

Defying everything that made sense, the girl then passed straight through the door at the end of the hallway that led outside.

Link stopped. Nobody in Skyloft ever went outside at night. They just didn't. Even the instructors strictly enforced this seemingly illogical rule, and nobody asked any questions.

A series of screams suddenly came from outside.

Link reached for his sword and hurriedly pushed open the door.

It took him a minute to figure out what he was seeing, but when he did, he realized that all the noise seemed to be coming from a figure running around in circles in front of the Academy and being chased by a streak of fur.

"Ahh! Ahh!"

Link watched as the figure made a mad dash and scrambled up a nearby tree. The creature hissed and spat and started climbing up the trunk.

Maybe there was a good reason that no one went outside at night.

"Hey! You!" The figure suddenly yelled at him. "Now would be a good time to do the brave, hero-y thing and get rid of that freaking remlit!"

_A remlit?_

"A-any time now..." The figure huddled fearfully against the tree trunk.

Link thought for a moment, and then inched up and grabbed the cat-like creatures' bristly tail. Its red eyes flashed and it batted at him with its sharp claws as he pulled it off of the tree. It snarled and hissed, and Link winced then hurriedly rushed over to the nearest edge and dropped the remlit over, not knowing what else to do. A small twinge of guilt pricked at him, but then a creaking sort of noise distracted him.

It almost sounded like a branch breaking.

He heard a thud and a muffled: "...Ow..."

A girl around his age was lying face-first in the dirt below the tree. She slowly pushed herself up, and Link saw that she was wearing a baggy, long-sleeved shirt and black boots that reached her knees. He watched her as she winced and felt the back of her head. Then she noticed him and froze.

A few seconds later, she finally blinked, apparently recovering.

"Uh..." She stuck out her hand. "...Hi, I'm Mia."

Link looked at her hand.

"...You're supposed to shake it."

"...Why?"

She blinked. "...I don't really know, actually."

There was a pause that lapsed into a silence. The girl was shorter than him, Link noticed. He also noticed that her hair was tangled and she had a scratch on her cheek.

"You should get inside." He said finally and turned to leave. "Apparently it's not safe around here at night."

The blue floating girl he had momentarily forgotten about was hovering a little ways away, waiting for him to follow. Facing him, she floated backwards as he began to advance.

"Ah, w-wait. Um...Link. Wait." Mia's boots clumped on the cobblestones as she ran to catch up.

Link stopped, trying to remember if he had told her his name. He didn't think so. He turned around. "Listen..."

"Mia." She provided.

"..._Mia_. I'm kind of busy.."

Mia glanced at the blue girl. "...Right. But... Look, I don't really know what I'm doing here."

Link failed to see how that was his problem. "Okay..."

"I'm..." Mia started, then suddenly looked up and tilted her head slightly. "What did you say?"

Link frowned. "...I didn't say-"

She jumped as if startled by something. "What?" She looked around. "Who..._are_ you? And...and how are you talking to me?"

Link and looked at her strangely.

"N-not you," She told him shakily.

Link frowned.

After a minute he turned toward the floating blue girl.

"Wait! Just...just hang on a minute." Mia pleaded. "Who _are_ you?" She whispered fiercely, half turning away from him. "What? What are you _talking_ about?"

Link stared at her back. She was...talking to the air...

"Wait, Wingswhatever...author...voice...how am I supposed to explain-" She fell silent, apparently listening to something.

Link shifted his feet. Somewhere in the dark, crickets chirped.

"Wha...? But..." She sounded confused. "Well, I was just thrown into a video game world. How do you _think_ I feel?" She paused as if debating something, and then turned back to face Link, her face blank. "So...um...as I was saying...I was...sent here to help you..."

"What?"

"I was...sent to help you." She repeated.

"_What_?" Link asked with even more disbelief.

"I'm going with you to the Surface." She snapped.

"What? Why?" Link demanded. "And...how do you know about the Surface?" He looked at her curiously.

"...Because...I've...been there...?" She said avoiding eye contact.

Link looked at her suspiciously. "You've been to the Surface?"

"Y-yes!" She huffed. "Look, I was sent here to help you save Zelda."

"...How do you know about Zelda?"

"Uh...it...has to do with whoever sent me to help you...I think."

Link squinted at her warily. "Have you really been to the Surface?"

"...Yeah, you could say that." Mia answered, digging the toe of her boot into a crack in the ground.

More silence.

"But...how did you get past the clouds?" Link eventually asked. "And...and why do you have round ears?"

"Oh for the love of-" She exploded, then snapped her mouth shut. "You know," She said with forced patience. "The more time we waste here talking, the more time Zelda is spending being lost."

Link narrowed his eyes. _We? _

"So...shouldn't we...uh..." Mia glanced towards the patient floating girl. "Go follow Fi or something?"


	6. The Goddess Sword

**Chapter 6: The Goddess's Sword**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After that very long, very weird moment of me talking to a voice that had randomly come out of nowhere, Link and I started following the blue, sparkly, floating sword spirit that was Fi.

We followed her away from the knight academy, through Skyloft, then up some wooden stairs. The statue of the goddess was inaccessible for some reason, thick bars blocking the entrance in the rock wall separating the statue from the rest of Skyloft. So Fi led us to the right, on an alternate path that sloped steeply downwards and probably wouldn't be noticeable unless you were really looking for it.

Link and I took this new route without speaking, jumping across random gaps in the ground which, at times, I could see the sky and stars through. Freaky.

Glowing green bugs flew around my face and small bats with red, evil eyes swarmed around my hair. I batted them away and ran to catch up with Link, who had just jumped over a particularly large gap and was now climbing up a wall covered in thick vines. The statue of the goddess was silhouetted against the stars and loomed high above our heads. I swallowed, trying not to look down over the side of the very narrow ledge I was on.

Link had already made it to the top, so I took a running leap and grabbed onto the rough, leafy vines as not to get left behind. By trying my best to ignore the fact that there was nothing under my feet except air, I managed to haul myself up and almost kissed the ground in relief, stopping only because Link probably thought I was weird enough already.

Link had stopped in front of the massive statue that we were now beside. I walked up beside him just as Fi disappeared into the statue with a flick of her arm-wing things. The base of the rock statue seemed to shimmer before fading entirely, revealing a rounded opening into the statue.

I glanced at Link. "Shall we?"

Link nodded after a moment and I followed him inside the short passageway that opened up into a large, round stone chamber with a tall ceiling. A raised platform in the middle of the room held a slab of stone into which a sword was half-embedded. A soft light came from many lit torches, their flames casting strange flickering shadows on the walls.

"Where's..." Link murmured, and then fell silent as, in a stream of light, Fi shot out of the sword, circling high in the air before coming to rest in front of us. Her feet floated slightly above the stone floor, and her blue hair and skin gleamed strangely in the torchlight. The jewels on the front of her dress and the middle of her forehead sparkled.

"The one chosen by my creator." She said, addressing Link. "I have been waiting for you."

Link's eyes widened slightly.

"You will play a role in a great destiny." Fi continued in her somehow emotionless voice. "According to your social customs, I shall now provide you with my personal designation, which is Fi."

"What?" Link squinted at her.

"Her name's Fi." I told him.

"I was created for a single purpose, long before the recorded memory of your people. I must aid you in fulfilling the great destiny that is your burden to carry." Said Fi.

"In other words," I said brightly. "She's coming with us too!"

"Come Link." Fi said. "You must take up this weapon which you see before you. As the one chosen by my creator, it is your destiny."

"In other words," I said even more brightly. "Go pick up the sword!" Acting as a translator might actually be sort of amusing. Until Link got sick of it and decided to put a stop to it by throwing stuff or something.

"Yes, thank you. I think I understand." Link said, sarcasm practically dripping from his words. He started forwards, then stopped and stared at Fi again.

"The strange dreams troubling your sleep. My sudden appearance. Uncertainty surrounding the fate of the one you hold dear." Fi said, floating even higher upwards and reaching a height that didn't do anything good for my neck as I stared up at her. "Under the circumstances, it is only logical that you would exhibit some apprehension."

"Because of all the weird things happening to you, it would make sense if you were scared." I couldn't help but add, and was a little disappointed when Fi refused to get irritated at my translating.

"To minimize your uncertainty, allow me to share some information. My projections indicate that this information has a high probability of altering your current emotional state."

"To make you NOT scared, she-"

"Yes! Alright, Mia!"

"The one you seek, the honorable Zelda, is still alive." Fi went on. "This spirit maiden...the one you call Zelda...is another chosen one fated to be part of the same great mission. Therefore, should you wish to meet with your friend, I highly recommend you take up this sword before you set out to search for her."

Link was silent, but I could practically see the gears and pulleys or whatever was going on in his head working as he digested everything he had just been told. Apparently coming to a decision, he suddenly ran forwards onto the platform that held the sword.

Fi seemed to grin, though it may have been a trick of the light. "It seems that further persuasive measures will not be required."

I opened my mouth to share my own twisted, translated version of that sentence but thought better of it when Link shot me a dark look, his gaze shifting between me...and the weapon within his reach.

"In the name of my creator, draw the sword and raise it skyward!" Fi said. Her silvery voice echoed through the room and I shivered.

Link wrapped his fingers around the purpleish, green-striped hilt and smoothly pulled the sword from the stone. As he did so, a slow flash of pure light shot down the blade from within, making the silver shine brightly. There was a moment of silence as Link and I stared at the sparkly sword.

"Da na na naa!" I announced.

"Recognition complete Master...Link." Fi said, as Link turned the blade this way and that.

"Link!"

We all turned to see Gaepora standing in the doorway. He stared at the sword Link was holding, and then at Fi floating there. "I've had my suspicions, but until now, I wasn't sure. Yet here we are in the Chamber of the Sword, the very place where it was foretold the youth of legend would appear."He walked up to Link.

Link blinked at him. "...What?"

"The very knowledge of this room is a great secret, passed down to a select few in each generation, along with these words." Gaepora explained, then closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

_"When the light of the goddess's sword shines bright, the great apocalypse will wake from its long slumber. Do not fear, for it is then that a youth guided by my hand shall reveal himself in a place most sacred. The youth shall be guided by one who is short and attracts trouble- one clearly from a world other than that which was created by the Goddess, and the one born of the blade- one who is also youthful in likeness yet wise with knowledge immeasurable. Together, shall they accompany the youth on his great journey." _He recited, then opened his eyes.

"It started days ago. The sword that I've kept secret all these years...it began to give off a faint, otherworldly light. At first, I was sure I was seeing things, here alone with the sword...I never dreamed the prophecy of legend would come to pass in my lifetime."

"Hey, what do you mean, 'attracts trouble'?" I demanded suddenly.

Gaepora blinked, apparently noticing me for the first time. "What? Who are you?"

"...I shall now provide you with my personal designation, which is Mia."

Gaepora looked only very slightly confused.

"She's Mia." Link told him.

There was silence.

"Um...I'm…here to…help Link on his quest thing...?"

"...So now you're from another world?" Link asked skeptically.

"Uhm...yeah." I ducked my head self-consciously.

Gaepora stared at me thoughtfully.

"It appears critical sections from the texts have been lost." Fi said eventually, dropping down to our level. _"The youth who draws forth the sword shall be known as the goddess's chosen hero, and it is he who possesses an unbreakable spirit. He shall be burdened with the task of abolishing the shadow of apocalypse from the land. Such is his destiny. With the spirit of the blade and the short trouble maker at his side, he shall soar over the clouds-"_

"I am NOT just a short trouble maker. I am not!"

_"-And united with the spirit maiden, shall bring forth a piercing light that resurrects the land."_

"Land?" Link asked. "What land?"

"Master, you must embark on a great journey beneath the clouds to the vast realm of the surface. It is only through this journey that you can fulfill the mission set before you by my creator, the goddess."

"Ha! See? I told you we're going to the surface!" I said to Link. "Now do you believe me Link?"

Link slowly raised one shoulder higher than the other.

"And plus..." I said, holding back a grin. "If I don't go with you on your great quest...I'll be stuck here forever."

I think. At least that's what the voice told me.

Gaepora cleared his throat.

"Right. Let's go." Link said decidedly.

"Link, think about this for a moment. The world below is forsaken, and to reach it, you must pierce the cloud barrier below." Gaepora pointed out. "How are you going to do that?"

In answer, Fi held out her...wing-arm things, and a glowing square brick, not unlike the rail maps in Spirit Tracks, materialized and floated through the air towards Link.

"This tablet will illuminate a path through the clouds to the land below." Fi said. "Take it and place it in the altar behind me."

The heavy stone slab dropped into Link's outstretched hands. It probably would have been prudent to mention that he had replaced his old sword with the goddess's sword, placing the new weapon in his sheath and chucking the old one carelessly to the side, but hey, nobody's perfect.

"You got a boring peice of stone! Da na na naa!"

Fi completely ignored me again, much to my annoyance. "Master, the first thing you must do it hit the crest sitting in this room with a Skyward Strike. These blasts are formed of pure energy that charges within your blade when you lift it skyward."

Link nodded, handed the stone tablet to Gaepora, drew his new sword, and walked over to the far side of the room, where a crest in the shape of those weird birds you see in the Royal Crests found throughout numerous Zelda games was set in the floor.

Once in front of this crest, Link shot a blast of light at the crest by lifting his sword and swinging it down in a wide arch in front of him.

The crest then began to spin counterclockwise, sparkles shooting out everywhere. Yay, sparkles. As the crest continued to spin, a pillar rose up out of the ground beneath it. In this pillar was a large, squarish, indented space in it that you could probably put something in. Which is what Link did, taking back the tablet fragment from Gaepora and carefully pressing it into the empty, squarish space.

Unknown to everyone in the room except yours truly, and probably Fi, outside, a glowing ball of green light shot out of the head of the statue and descended towards the clouds.

"Master Link, it is done," Fi said. "Until now, a cloud barrier created by the goddess has separated the world you know from the one below. The tablet you placed in the alter has opened a small rift in the barrier. You can use it to travel through the clouds to the realm below." In parting, Fi turned into a ball of light that disturbingly looked like Zelda's from Spirit Tracks. "I reside within your sword and will accompany you in your travels." She said, and flew down into the sword now strapped across Link's back.

"Link, listen a moment." Gaepora said as Link turned to go. "The nature of the great apocalypse mentioned in the old texts is a complete mystery to me, but whatever it turns out to be, it seems that both you and Zelda have big roles to play in the destiny of this land. Just think! If what this Fi says is true, Zelda is alive! Alive and no doubt coming to terms with whatever it is the goddess has in store for her."

"Which is...running away while we're trying to find her?"

Gaepora glanced at me, and then continued, "Should you heed the call of destiny, I don't know what dangers you may have to face Link. But if you've decided to brave the unknown, please find my daughter and bring her back to me."

Link nodded very seriously. I shifted my weight onto my left foot, fiddling with the sleeve of my grey, oversized sweater.

"And you, Mia." Gaepora turned to me, his long, bright orange robe thing swishing on the ground. "You are obviously the short, trouble-attracting one." He chuckled for some reason. "And although I don't know you well, I trust you will faithfully aid Link on the quest that will prove the legends true."

"..." I grumbled.

"Well then...we should leave as soon, right?" Link said.

Gaepora clasped Link's hand in his and shook vigorously. "You do your people proud Link."

"This is all peachy. But isn't it kind of really late?" I asked.

"Yes." Gaepora straightened and turned, walking towards the exit. Link and I trotted after him. "You have a great journey ahead of you Link. And those...clothes don't look up to the task."

Gaepora and I both glanced at Link's thin cotton shirt and patchy pants as we left the statue and walked down the path leading to Skyloft. I noticed that the bars blocking the normal entrance to the statue had mysteriously disappeared.

"Hmm...the uniform you were to receive for winning the race should be ready by now, Link. A sturdy uniform like that will prove much more suitable for a journey." Gaepora said, his deep voice echoing off of the huge wooden doors of the academy as we drew closer.

"I wonder what color that will be?" I muttered to nobody really.

"This year's uniform, in fact, is green." Gaepora explained, apparently not picking up on the sarcasm.

"Thanks. I had absolutely no idea."

We padded quietly down the hallway as not to wake anyone behind the many closed doors on either side of us. The carpet we were walking on was so thick and plush, it felt like I could bury my feet up to my ankles in it if I stood on it without my boots on.

"Mia, in the few hours before dawn, you may have Zelda's room, if you wish to rest." Gaepora offered quietly as we stopped in front of a closed door. He brought a key ring from somewhere within his robes and unlocked the door with a silver key.

"...Alright." I agreed, and stepped through the now open door, shutting it behind me.

The room was irritatingly dark. The only things I could make out, as my eyes adjusted somewhat were two shapes that were a desk and a bed if I remembered correctly. Without bothering to pull off my boots I flopped down on the softer-feeling shape and closed my eyes, fingered the cut on my cheek that the earlier remlit had put there.

It was only then that I realized that in order to go with Link, I would have to ride on his Loftwing with him.

Great.


	7. Just Another Normal Day in Skyloft

**Chapter Seven: Just another normal day in Skyloft...  
**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Link  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Link slept restlessly under his heavy quilt that night, his thoughts full of sword spirits, and remlits, and Zelda. When the first rays of sunlight began peeking over the horizon a few hours later, he reluctantly dragged himself out of bed, feeling like he barely got any sleep.

In the dim light, he found and put on the new uniform that Gaepora had given him a few hours earlier, which consisted of a close-fitting dark green tunic, a long-sleeved shirt and a shirt of light chain mail underneath that, a floppy green hat, and fingerless, leather gauntlets. And also a thick belt, which Link cinched to proper size before slinging his sword sheath over his back and leaving his room.

"Hi Link! Gaepora said you were going on a big journey...?"

Link shut his door and turned to face his younger classmate, Fledge. "Yep."

"So it is true!" Fledge ducked his head sheepishly. "I mean, of course Gaepora wouldn't lie or anything. Anyways, I thought I'd come over and catch you before you left, because, well..." He gave up on words and shyly brought something out from behind his back. "I made this for you. It's an adventure pack! You can fill it up with all kinds of stuff you might need."

Link took from him a belt with durable-looking bags of various sizes attached to it.

Fledge watched him, hopefully. "Do you like it?"

Link immediately went to strap it over top of his uniform belt. "Fledge, this is great! It will definitely come in handy where I'm going."

"Oh good." Fledge sighed in relief. "Just remember: you can put all your stuff in there now, so you don't have to carry it all in your hands. Oh, and maybe you should go to the Bazaar and stock up before you leave. That way, you can get potions, and a shield, and stuff! Don't forget the shield. The shield's important." He said very seriously.

+.+

Once saying goodbye to Fledge and getting the bag of rupees from his room, Link trotted outside the academy and down the path that led towards the big, purple, easily noticeable Bazaar tent.

Pipit and a few other of his classmates were sprawled lazily in the front of the academy, taking advantage of the few hours before classes actually started. Pipit's dark yellow uniform was bright against the deeper green of the grass as he rolled over onto his side and raised an arm at Link in greeting. Strich's eyes were hidden under his shaggy blonde hair as he peered intently down at his book, not studying as Link first assumed, but instead watching a small grasshopper make its way across the pages. Cawlin glanced up and scowled when he saw whose shadow had fallen over him. Link met his glaring eyes, and the moody youth was quick to look away, still scowling.

After getting to the Bazaar tent, Link made a beeline for Skyloft's only item shop. The shop's owner showed him his selection of shields, which were all pretty overpriced, but Link bought one anyways and left with a nearly empty wallet.

He slung the round wooden slab over his back, adjusting the sword sheath underneath as he walked past a medicine booth. The sharp scents of various herbs floating up from the slightly bubbling concoctions caught his attention, and he stopped to look at the brightly colored vats of potion.

Luv, the potion maker, noticed his interest and came over, pushing the sleeves of her fuzzy green sweater up past her elbows. "Hello there Link! Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

"Yes." Link answered politely as she leaned on the counter towards him. He squinted at the label on the pots and pointed to a red potion. "What does that one do?"

Luv smiled and pushed away a long red curl of hair off of her forehead. "That one is a heart potion. It's made from heart fruit and other special plants that restore your energy. How about picking some up for your big adventure?"

No news stayed news in Skyloft for very long it seemed.

"Yeah, okay." Link dug into his pocket and pulled out his rupees, then stopped and frowned. "I...I don't have a container to carry it in or anything..."

Luv thought for a moment, then turned around and scanned the wooden shelves behind her. "I was sure I had a...oh! There it is!" She reached up among various herbs and potion making ingredients and retrieved an empty glass bottle. "Oh, don't be silly." She said, handing it to Link and waving away his protests. "I don't even use it anyway,"

Placing the correct amount of rupees as was specified on the sign in Luv's hand, Link dipped his new bottle in the warm heart potion. He filled it to the brim, plugged the top with a cork stopper, and then slipped it into one of the bags on his belt.

"Now don't be thinking you need to use it all up at once. One mouthful is enough to keep your strength up for quite some time,"

Link nodded at Luv before turning and wandering over to Piper's section.

"Now, I think I forgot the- Oh! This needs more pepper, I think." Gully's mother muttered, tasting from a simmering pot with some kind of soup in it.

No matter when Link saw her, Piper was always busy.

_I guess that's what happens when practically everyone in Skyloft comes to her morning, noon, and night,_ He thought.

A few seconds after he had sat down at a small table in the corner, someone called his name. "Link! Hey, Link!"

Link looked up to see Karane, one of the seniors in his class, skirting around chairs. She nearly knocked over a pile of dirty dishes stacked haphazardly on the edge of a table in her haste to get to him, and her dark blue eyes were wide with something like alarm.

She stopped in front of him and nervously tugged at one of her bright red pigtails. "Um, Link? You know your...uh...friend? Mia?"

"...Yeah...?" To think he had hoped it would be somewhat of a normal day.

"Well, you see, Gaepora told me to go wake her up, and I had to actually go into Zelda's room to wake her up because she's not really the morning type." An annoyed look flickered over Karane's freckled face. "She wasn't exactly in a very good mood to start with. Then she almost tripped on that desk that I keep telling Zelda to move against the wall. You know, the one with the paint coming off of it?"

Link began to tap his fingers on the wood grain of the table. It wasn't like Karane to get worked up over many things, and even on those rare occasions when she did, she never rambled this much.

"So anyway," Karane continued, "She stumbled out into the hallway. And even though I tried to warn her, she said something about you sneaking off and leaving her behind and then barged into Groose's room because she thought it was yours."

Link winced.

Karane began fidgeting with the round, lime green hat on her head. "...He was surprisingly good-natured about it. Probably because he was half-asleep, because, you know, it's Groose, and when is he ever good-natured about anything?" She babbled. "Remember that time with the-"

"Karane," Link interrupted impatiently.

"Um yeah. So, all Groose did was call her a pipsqueak or something. Which isn't really that bad, because there are plenty of other things he could have said, but...she got all bent out of shape and started...um...insulting him..."

Link dropped his elbows heavily on the table, supporting his head in his hands. _Of all the miserable, mindless...  
_He almost wished he had snuck away before she had woken up.

"...You should probably go get her before she gets killed." Karane glanced over her shoulder uneasily. "And when I left, it looked like that seriously might be happening soon."

As much as he wanted to let someone else take care of this problem, Link didn't know what would happen if Mia did indeed die, therefore messing up the prophecy in the ancient texts. His uncertainty about that whole matter was the only thing that made him push back his chair, leave the Bazaar tent, and go back to the academy with Karane leading the way.

There were textbooks lying open on the ground, like Pipit and the others had been interrupted by something and left in a hurry.

Karane paused on the cracked, stone doorstep. "Know if there're any free spots in the graveyard?"

Link snorted and leaned on the doors, pushing them open just enough to let him and Karane to slip through. The first thing he noticed besides the small crowd of students congregated in the middle of the hallway was Pipit, leaning against a wall off to the side.

"Link, are you familiar with her, by any chance?" He asked, and then frowned. "She's not very bright, is she?"

Link felt his eyes widen in horror when he saw who Pipit was talking about.

On the other side of the wall of students stood Mia and Groose, hostility written all over their faces as they glared at each other, arms crossed. Mia had to crane her neck back to look up at the redhead; her already small, thin self was dwarfed in comparison to Groose's major heftiness.

"YOU'RE the one who fell out of th' sky and made me lose th' Wing Race." Groose was saying. "YOU'RE th' one who barged into my room. An' YOU'RE th' idiot who started with th' insults. So how th' heck is everythin' my fault?"

"I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you." Mia said with exaggerated slowness. "And of course I talk like an idiot, Groose. How else would you understand me?"

"She is so going to die," Karane whispered to Link.

Groose was getting visibly steamed. "You wench!" He spat, veins bulging in his neck.

"Ginger!" She shot back.

"Bitch!"

"Baka!" She paused. "Hey...do you spend a lot of time on your hair?" She suddenly asked, the strangest expression coming over her face.

Link thought he knew what was coming and struggled to get past the students in front of him. Dread sank into him when he quickly realized the futility of the situation as the students packed in closer, eager to see what would happen next.

"My hair?" Groose leaned back on his heels, puzzlement flickering over his otherwise peeved face.

"Yeah, your hair. Is it really hard to get it to stand up like that?" Mia's mouth quirked upwards slightly, and Link watched in horror as she stood on tiptoe, stretched both arms up as far as she could and...

Messed up his hair. Thoroughly.

All hell, as they say, broke loose.

The thin thread, all that was remaining of Groose's self-control, snapped, and he lunged towards Mia with his huge hands outstretched. She squealed and ducked away, disappearing among the slack-jawed students and out of Link's sight.

_Of all the insane, Idiotic, unintelligent...!_

Link quickly moved along the outside of the students in the general direction he had last seen Mia, and saw with mild concern that Groose had the same idea.

Groose probably would have gotten to her first, had Instructor Owlen and Instructor Horwell not come out of nowhere and grabbed him by the arms, momentarily restraining him.

"I am going to _kill_ you pipsqueak! And then some!"

Before his burly classmate could break out of his rapidly weakening restraint, Link went back to searching and found Mia crouching beside a bookshelf and against a wall.

She grinned up at him impishly. "Oh hi there!"

Fuming, Link grabbed her by the wrist and towed her towards a side door down the hall and away from Groose, who was still yelling. In the confusion, they were able to escape unseen and were soon outside of the academy.

Link dropped Mia's wrist. "What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?" She asked innocently, rubbing her arm.

"It's not even noon yet, and you've managed to make a mortal enemy out of the one guy here on Skyloft who could kill you with a single one of his fingers!"

"He's not that huge." She muttered, then caught Link's incredulous look. "Okay, yes he is. But that's no excuse to go all ballistic. He obviously has some serious anger issues."

"Hmph." Link grumbled, crouching down to wipe hair gunk that had transferred from Mia, off of his hands and onto the grass.

"Anyways, he started it." Mia said.

"Master Link," Fi said suddenly, causing both of them to jump. "My analysis being complete, I have come to the conclusion that it was probably her fault."

Mia glared at Link's sword. "Oh, so just because your texts say I'm a trouble maker, and Groose has anger problems, I'm a trouble maker? How prejudiced!"

Link rolled his eyes and started jogging towards the nearest diving platform, not waiting to see if Mia would follow him or not. He was eager to get as far away from his aggravated classmate as he could, and also to go and save Zelda.

"Are you forgetting anything?" Mia called from behind him. "Don't you think maybe you should get some extra stamina potion? You don't know what's down on the Surface."

"I think we've wasted enough time, haven't we, Mia? And do you really want to be hanging around here after what you started?" Walking to the very edge of the platform, Link whistled loudly. With a screech, his Loftwing flew out of the sky and lighted beside him, ducking its red, feathery head affectionately.

"Baka," Mia muttered, hanging back away from the edge.

Link patted the side of his Loftwing's face, blinking at the huge, yellow eye that was peering at him. He grabbed the harness and pulled himself up, staring down at Mia, who was staring up at him.

"I...suppose you don't have a Loftwing?" He observed, after she made no move to dive off the platform and call for one.

"No..." She said sheepishly.

Link sighed and reluctantly extended a hand. "Get on."

+.+

Soon they were airborne and flying towards a pillar of green light coming up through the clouds below.

"So...you're mentioned in the ancient texts...yet you don't have a Loftwing." Link observed.

"Just keep on flying towards that beam of light," Mia muttered.

Hearing a change in her voice which now sounded very unlike the defensive one used after the Groose incident, Link glanced over his shoulder. To his surprise, her eyes were screwed tightly shut. Her hair whipped around her already pale face, which now seemed even paler.

It seemed crazy, that someone who would insult Groose to his face would be afraid of heights, yet Link felt her trembling as she tightened her grip on his shoulders.

"H-hang on Link. Your Loftwing won't go past the cloud barrier." She said as they came up to the strange, swirling hole in the clouds. "Not...not even through that hole. You'll have to dive off and use your sailcloth. You brought your sailcloth, right?"

"...Yes. But how then..." Link trailed off and directed his Loftwing in a wide circle around the rift in the thick clouds.

"I don't know. Maybe you can just go by yourself...?" Mia suggested hopefully.

"...No." Link let go of the harness momentarily to pull Zelda's sailcloth out of where he had tucked it safely under his tunic. Keeping a tight grip on it so the wind wouldn't tear it out of his hands, he shook it out. "Get on my back."

"What? Are you crazy?"

"How else are you going to get to the Surface?" Link said impatiently. "Do YOU have a sailcloth?"

"No..."

"Well lucky for you, I do. Now hang onto me and don't let go, okay?"

"Nu-uh. Nope. There is NO way-"

"Mia, the only reason this might work is because you're small. And there's no other way to do this, so would you just cooperate?" Link said, exasperated.

"...Fine." Mia waited for him to shift his sword and shield to the side before she brought her arms around his front. "If we die, I'm going to hurt you." She mumbled, locking her hands tightly together and sounding like she was about to be sick.

"Uh huh. I probably need my ribs, so try not to crush them, okay?" Link said a little less harshly.

Mia didn't get a chance to answer because suddenly they were right over the opening in the clouds. Link swung both legs onto one side of his Loftwing, and with his heart beating rapidly, slid off.

And then they were falling through the sky, and finally going after Zelda. Mia was squeezing him so hard that Link was sure he would have bruises on his chest, but then the sailcloth suddenly caught the air and they were no longer falling but floating. Floating through the clouds and towards the surface.


	8. The Sealed Grounds

**A/N: To Zzzp2, Glissgirl99, Lizalu9, TheMidnightWhisp, and DGM10: Thanks. Your ideas are awesome. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) **

**Chapter Eight: The Sealed Grounds**

* * *

/\/\/\

Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

For some non compos mentis crazy heads, skydiving is a wonderful and exhilarating thing.

For me, when I'm falling thousands of feet through the air and relying on a guy holding a scrap of cloth with no proper handles, I don't really have time to appreciate the phenomenal feeling of one's heart migrating into one's throat. I'm just holding on for dear life.

I _think_ we somehow made it past the cloud barrier, and I'm pretty sure we landed with a small jolt that I may have blown way out of proportion and assumed the worst had happened when we tumbled to the ground.

"Are we dead?"

"No, we're not dead." Link wheezed, staggering to the side a little. "And you can let go now."

"...Are you sure?" I squeaked.

"Yes! Let go!" He pried my arms off from where they had moved up to around his neck, and sucked air into his oxygen-deprived lungs while I fell backwards and immediately curled up into a pathetic ball of sorts. I didn't even bother trying to stand up because I knew that my wobbly legs probably wouldn't support me yet.

"Link?" I said when I finally stopped shaking.

"Yes?"

"What was the heck was the Goddess thinking? That is one sketchy traveling method!"

"Master Link, we have arrived. By my calculations, we are currently positioned in a location known as the Sealed Grounds." Fi spoke from Link's sword, her voice sounding stranger than normal in the weird air.

"So...is this the surface..." Link said uneasily. "I thought it would be...well..."

"Like Skyloft, only bigger?"

"...Yeah, I guess."

I opened my eyes and saw fog everywhere. It was so thick and wispy that it almost stopped me from seeing that, on the other side of the rickety metal fence I had used to pull my wobbly self up, was a path that spiraled steeply downwards and along the outside of a large, deep pit.

My hands came away covered with black rust as I hurriedly stumbled backwards, nearly into Link as he moved closer to investigate.

"Hey...there's something down there."

"Probably the remains of the last guy who leaned as far over that fence as you." I muttered, though I knew perfectly well what that 'something' was.

The little strip of land we had miraculously landed on was no more than a ledge jutting out from the wall of earth behind us. It was fenced off to our left and directly in front, but I saw that if we were to jump off the right side we would land directly on the path a few feet below.

"Let's go see what that is over there." Link suggested, pointing to the building I had just noticed directly across the pit from us.

"...Okay." I said, but made no move to move.

Link easily walked over the unfenced edge and peered down at the dirt path below. "Are you coming?"

"...I think...I'll just...wait here..."

Link shrugged. "Suit yourself."

With that, he dropped down off our little platform just like a boy would, not sitting first, just putting his left hand to the ground and vaulting the three-foot drop to the ground below, landing freakishly close to the edge of the pit. Freakishly close, as in only a few feet away. I watched him start trotting down the path and marveled at how little time passed before his outline was barely visible.

"...Sorry to interrupt your marveling, but some of the reviewers think you should go back and get Link's old sword. Just in case...monsters try to get you or something."

I jumped a little in response to the voice that was unexpectedly coming out of nowhere. "...Couldn't you have told me this before we left Skyloft, whoever you are?"

There was a pause. Then, "You don't remember me?"

"...If you're that crazy author voice...then yes." I replied darkly. The air seemed to be getting colder, and I shivered, glad I was wearing a sweater. "But...don't you think it's a little weird to keep talking to me when apparently no one else hear you?"

"I waited until Link was out of hearing range, didn't I?"

"..." In a moment of rare inspiration, I pushed away from the wall and awkwardly dropped onto the path below. "Link! Wait up!" I called as I began to inch my way along with my back pressed against the wall.

"I think you should really consider going and getting that sword." The voice sounded nervous now, for unknown reasons I couldn't care less about.

"Why?" I frowned. "I don't know how to use a sword. Plus, that sword is all the way back in freaking Skyloft. And if monsters try to get me...Link can protect me!"

"What?" Link turned when I caught up to him. He had reached the building, which turned out to be an extremely old-looking temple of some sort. Bits of brick and pieces from the roof of the building had fallen, and lay, scattered across the ground. There was ivy crawling up the crumbling walls, but the sealed stone door was surprisingly intact.

"Nothing. I wasn't talking to you."

"..._Oh_." He gave me a perturbed look, then went over to inspect a pile of rubble.

"See what you cause to happen?" I snapped to the air. "Now Link thinks I'm weird."

There was silence.

"Well, more weird, I guess. But still, could you just...stop talking to me?"

"Hey, all I'm trying to say is that it would be quite helpful-"

"-To have a sword? Why?!" I demanded. "Why would it be helpful? Monsters? Why would monsters try to get me?"

"...Ghirahim?"

"As if Link's old sword could do anything to that..that psychopath."

There was a sigh. "Well don't say we didn't warn you."

"What?" Link had appeared beside me again, looking quite alarmed at this point.

"Ugh, noth- Wait, Actually..." I cut myself off. "I'll tell you. Okay, so there's this... author. And I guess I should explain that we're here as a result of her overactive imagination. Well, actually, I'm here as a result of her overactive imagination...or something like that. Your whole world, or story or whatever, was made up by another guy who is way cooler and much more awesome than the one who dumped me here. I know it's kind of confusing and probably hard to believe, but if you-"

Expecting to see Link backing away slowly, I turned to see...that he was no longer with me. Instead, he had wandered over to the edge of the pit. And judging by the lack of alarmed expressions being directed my way, it looked as if he hadn't heard anything I had just said.

"...I do believe you did that on purpose!"

"Bye Mia." In her voice, I could practically hear the sly smile I was sure was creeping over her face.

I rolled my eyes and sighed, then wandered over to Link. "Hey Link, did you happen to hear anything I just said at all?"

"...What...?" Link said in an absentminded sort of way.

"I thought not."

"Mia, look down there." He said suddenly. I looked.

"What? It's just a stake in the ground." I grinned. "Are you scared of a stake in the ground?"

Link still kept staring."What..._is_ that?"

"Um, a _stake_." I repeated.

"No, that smoke..."

"...You mean mist?"

"No, I mean smoke. That black smoke. Can't you see it?"

"No..." But I knew that it was there, and what it was.

Link suddenly gave a yell, his face screwing up in a disturbed expression of pain.

"What's wrong with you?" I stared at him, feigning innocence as he stumbled backwards a couple of steps. He gasped and spun around and bolted back towards the temple place.

I hesitated, then followed him, and found him leaning against the stone door. "Link?"

He looked up, but from the way his eyes were unfocused and blurry, I got the feeling he didn't really realize he was looking at me.

"Master, I have information to report." Fi said, coming out of the goddess sword, oblivious to Link's current condition. "While these doors appear to have been opened recently, they are now sealed shut by a powerful, unidentified force."

"And this is relevant how?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"...I...I think we should go down there." Link's eyes came back into focus, and he tilted his head to the side.

"...Why?"

"Well, that's what the voice is saying," He said.

Fi and I were silent.

"You can hear it too, can't you?" Link's voice faltered as his gaze shifted between the two of us.

"No...but don't worry." Maybe it _was _the most normal thing in the world, hearing voices that no one else could. "Ah...what's it saying?"

"It...it called me a child of destiny, descended from the sky."

"And...?"

"That I should raise my sword, aim at the evil aura...and unleash its power."

"...Okay...well, what are you waiting for?" I made 'shoo' motions with both my hands towards the pit and the evil spike thing at the bottom.

"You're not-"

"I'm not getting close to that pit if I can help it." I shuddered. "And you might want to just jump off the edge and use your sailcloth instead of taking that path all the way down. It would be a lot quicker." I noted as I settled down on the cold, rocky ground and leaned back against a disintegrated stone wall.

"...Fine." Link pulled out his sailcloth and followed my advice, taking a running start and jumping off into the pit.

I waited, picturing him landing on the bottom, discovering the stake up close, gathering energy for a Skyward Strike, and unleashing a wave of light. Which would drive back the evil aura if he did it right.

It wasn't long before he came trotting back up the path.

"Master Link, I am sensing a change in the area that was triggered by your Skyward Strike." Fi was saying. "I have also detected an aura that correlates closely to your sailcloth."

Link stopped.

"I surmise this aura belongs to Zelda." Fi concluded. "I can lead you in the direction of this aura through a process known as dowsing." She offered.

Link looked at her. "What's dowsing?"

"Dowsing is when I detect the presence of the aura of something you wish to search for using the tip of the sword. The nearer you are to an object emitting the aura in question, the stronger the response will be. This response manifests itself through vibration, illumination, and sound."

"...What?"

I got up off of the ground. "If you're looking for something or someone, Fi can help you find it. The brighter your sword glows, the closer you are to whatever you want to find. In other words..." I snickered. "It can be used as a super not-so-secret Zelda stalker!"

"So..." Link took his sword out and held it in front of him. "This will help me find Zelda?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

Fi disappeared back into the blade, which immediately began to pulsate with a blue, Fi-ish light.

"Try pointing it towards the doors," I suggested, gesturing towards the temple doors.

Link did so, and the sword glowed brighter. His hands started to shake, probably with anticipation or something as he sheathed his sword and pushed open the doors, which looked so old that they probably shouldn't have opened so smoothly.

I followed him through the doorway of old temple and into a room with huge pillars stretching up to a ceiling speckled with holes, through which I could see the grey sky. The air was musty though there were a lot of holes in the roof. There were crumbling steps in the middle of the dust-covered floor, which lead to a raised platform that ended at a massive stone door. Strange symbols and designs were carved on it, but they were faded and hard to make out.

In front of the door sat a small, hunched figure wearing a red robe of sorts, the ends of which splayed on the ground on either side of her. The top of her robe rose into a point over her head and looked kind of like a tent. Closer inspection revealed the figure to be an older woman, though it was pretty hard to tell at first. Intricately woven braids wrapped around her head and covered her eyes. A long, single braid hung down on the right side of her face and twisted into a circle at the bottom, swaying freely back and forth like a pendulum.

"Ah...the travelers descended from the clouds above. I welcome you, children of fate." Her words were unhurried and even and not at all Yoda-ish like I would have expected from her appearance. "Tell me, what are your names?" I noticed a faint, white teardrop shape on her cheek as Link and I reached the top of the stairs.

"...Link." Said Link.

"Link? Ah Link. Good very good." She said in response to his name before I got a chance to give mine. "I sense you have already gained control over the sacred power that fills your sword when pointed Skyward."

"Yes...?"

"If the Skyward Strike is indeed yours to command, then it is proof that you are fit to bear the blade you carry, the Goddess sword. I have sat here for many years, waiting for you to arrive. All so that I could fulfill my purpose as your guide. You stand under the roof of the Sealed Temple, a place built by the goddess an eternity ago." She raised a hand, hidden in the deep sleeves of her robe, and gestured upwards. "Your arrival here was predestined many, many years ago."

"Have you seen-"

"-The spirit maiden you seek arrived here shortly before you, descending to this land in a shower of light." She interrupted. "There is no doubting it. The gears of fate have begun to turn."

"You've seen Zelda. Here." Link repeated. "Then where is she?" The sword he held no longer emitted light of any sort, but as he looked around anyways, as if expecting Zelda to be hiding behind the crumbled walls or in the shadows of the deteriorating pillars.

"Link...Mia...you are concerned for the spirit maiden and seek her whereabouts, yes?"

Link elbowed me before I could say something to contradict the old woman's assumption.

"Ow!"

"That is understandable, but for now you must focus on moving forward." The old woman said. "That girl has her own purpose she must pursue, as do you. She set out for Faron Woods to discover that destiny for herself, and you must follow."

Link looked crushed upon realizing Zelda was no longer in the immediate vicinity. Although...his glow-less blade should have been a pretty obvious clue. "So...where's Faron Woods?" He asked.

The old woman reached somewhere in the sleeves of her robe and pulled out a rather large, old-looking piece of parchment. "This map will guide you along the surface. I have placed a mark on the path that leads to Faron Woods. Leave the temple through that side door and go now."

Link took the map and buried his face in it for a moment before pointing at a big, red 'x' on a path leading into a accurately, from what I could see, drawn rendition of the forest on the other side of the temple from us. "That's where we're headed?" Link showed the old woman the mark.

"Yes, you must head into Faron Woods and chase after the Spirit Maiden...the one you call Zelda." She said, and pointed to a modest little door to our right. "Leave through the door before you and head into the woods. I wish you travel safe."

"Come on Link, let's blow this pop stand, or whatever." I trotted down off the platform and towards the indicated door, coughing as my boots raised clouds of dust.

"But...Is Zelda okay? How is she going to get through the woods all by herself?" Link asked as he folded the map into a reasonable sized square.

"The sooner we get going, the sooner you'll find out, so hurry up, would ya?" I said impatiently.

"But-"

"Know that all the questions you have now will be answered in time." The old woman said. "For now, Link, go bravely. Fear not. For the time being, Zelda is safe."

+.-

A shockingly bright stream of sunlight hit me right in the face as Link and I together managed to pry open the door and step outside. The sounds of many birds filled the otherwise quiet air. It was a peaceful sort of quiet though. The fog was gone, and the atmosphere was drastically different from how it had been on the other side of the temple.

Link's eyes widened as he took in the tangle of trees a little ways down the well-worn path that led away from the Sealed Grounds. He stared without blinking, long enough that my eyes started watering painfully on his behalf.

"What, haven't you ever seen a tree before?" I finally blinked and started shaking dust out of my sweater.

"Those trees...are really big."

Actually, the trees _were_ quite large, bigger than any I had ever seen. Thick branches full of many leaves stretched up to the blue, cloudless sky. Which was kind of weird, seeing as we had just come from above a thick cloud barrier.

The second thing I noticed was that it was warm. Almost tropical warm. The aroma of flowers and other vegetation was almost thick enough to taste. And gosh, it was pretty.

Streams of light filtered through the tops of the trees.  
Leaves spiraled down through the air, catching the sunlight.  
Ferns curled around the bases of the tree trunks.  
A thick carpet of grass covered the forest floor.

And a Goron with a huge pack on his back stood in the middle of it all, surrounded by a gang of red, bokoblin things with close-set yellow eyes. Their huge, piggish faces twisted into snarls as their clawed, bare feet scraped threateningly on the ground. The horns hanging around their waists gleamed unnaturally white, as if they were made out of bones or something equally unpleasant.

I had just noticed that they were armed with huge, metal clubs of some sort that looked pretty sharp, when Link grabbed my sleeve and pulled me behind a nearby rock. "Yank my arm off, why don't you," I muttered.

Link didn't say anything, and we both cautiously peeked over the top of the boulder and watched the disturbance taking place in front of us.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go help him!" I said finally and shoved Link out from behind the boulder.


	9. Faron Woods

**A/N: Lazy chapter is lazy. -.-  
If you notice the Hunger Games reference, you get a Japanese happy face. ^_^**

Chapter Nine: Faron Woods

* * *

/\/\/\  
Link  
/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Mia!" Pangs of mild panic made Link's voice waver as the snarling red creatures came closer. But it wasn't until they pointed their jagged-edged weapons straight at him that he almost started hyperventilating.

"Jeez, dude, keep your shirt on." Mia said, and Link could almost hear her eyes roll. "This is the first enemy you're made to run into, so they should be really easy to beat. Attack them wherever you notice they're vulnerable." She advised, disappearing back behind the rock. "Oh, and using your sword might help."

Link ducked, narrowly avoiding a clumsy, yet vicious slash meant for his face. He jumped away from another aimed at his torso and lashed back with a poorly aimed swipe that connected with one of the metal clubs, sending painful vibrations racing up his arm.

"Ugh, did you not learn anything at sword school? Aim for the side they're NOT holding their weapons in front of." Mia yelled. "Honestly!"

The six monsters had surrounded Link in a tight circle while his arm was still recovering, and Link could smell their foul breath as they packed in closer. Beads of sweat dampened the hair on his brow as they made creepy triumphant noises upon seeing that their prey had little chance of escaping.

"Got any more bright ideas?" Link yelled to Mia as the monsters simultaneously raised their clubs, rearing back for an attack he was pretty sure would slice him in half and take off his head all at once.

"Do a barrel roll!"

Despite his life being threatened, Link almost stopped frantically blocking the random blows that were now raining down on him from every direction. "Whaaat?" He yelled as his boots slid on the slippery grass.

"Use the boost to get through!" She yelled back while he struggled to keep his footing on the iffy terrain.

"MIA!" Link grasped the sword with both hands, swinging it down with all his might, wincing as it sliced deep into a scaly red arm. Its owner screeched and tore away; warm, foul-smelling blood sprayed up in Link's face. He shuddered in disgust, ducking to avoid an attack from the wounded monster's enraged comrade.

"Yelling isn't very polite." Mia finally said.

"YOU ARE THE REASON THAT I'M FIGHTING SIX MONSTERS RIGHT NOW! I THINK I'M ENTITLED TO YELL A BIT!" He replied, in a calmly enraged sort of way.

"...So you wouldn't have helped the Goron if it wasn't for me? For shame."

"MIA, SO HELP ME I WILL PUT YOU ON MY LOFTWING AND MAKE IT FLY UPSIDE-DOWN-"

"Jeez! Okay, fine! Try a spin attack!"

A spin attack. A spin attack was something he knew how to do.  
Gathering his remaining strength Link crouched down, keeping all his weight on his toes. Gritting his teeth, he brought his sword around in a wide sweeping circle that effectively sliced right through each of the monsters, the speed at which he executed his blow throwing all of them backwards in a mess of blood and bits of nastiness.

"Spaz." Mia muttered, gingerly stepping around puddles of blood and making her way over to him once she was sure the monsters were dead.

Link just leaned on his sword, painting, sort of amazed that his spin attack had been so powerful. Being Master of the goddess' sword had its privileges, he supposed.

"Whew, thanks for jumping in there to rescue me bud!" The Goron he had saved looked particularly relieved and came over from where he had been huddling beside a small bird statue.

"Yeah...you're welcome." Link muttered, getting off his knees and wiping the monster blood off his sword onto the grass.

"I tell you," The Goron said to Mia, "there's all sorts of weird things going on lately. This is the second time I've bumped into one of your kind today!"

"So..." Mia said as she scraped monster residue off her boots and onto the ground. "You saw another one like us? Was it a girl? With a harp?"

"Hmm...I can't remember exactly...I only got a small glimpse before those red things attacked me. Who were those red pests anyway? I did not expect to run into a pack of them in this peaceful forest."

Link glared at Mia and sheathed his sword.

"Anyways, as a thanks for getting rid of those guys, let me tell you something cool!" The Goron shifted the huge backpack thing higher on his back. "I am Gorko the Goron," Said Gorko the Goron. "And I'm researching the ancient history of the woods here. According to the ancient texts, there is some kind of place up there called the Isle of the Goddess." He gestured to the sky.

"Hey, that's where we came fro-"

Link inconspicuously stepped on Mia's foot.

"Apparently these old statues serve as landmarks to those traveling to and from the sky." Gorko said. "And this statue is said to have the ability to activate all the others. The whole thing sounds crazy, I know, but I for one believe it to be true. Otherwise, why would all these statues be here in the first place?"

"How does this statue work?" Link asked, leaning closer. The moment he did it lit up with the same bluish light as his sword had, and..._wind_ started coming out of the ground beneath his feet. Link stared as bits of grass and leaves went swirling into the air.

Then Mia gave him a shove.

"Hey..!" He complained, stumbling a bit out of the column of wind.

"That wind would have taken you all the way back to the sky. Without me." She grimaced when she noticed what she now had on her hands from touching his gore-splattered tunic.

Link glanced back at the statue and saw that the wind had apparently disappeared when he had moved away.

"WHOA! What in the world just happened?" Gorko's huge brown eyes looked about ready to pop out of his enormous head. "Did you use some kind of magic? That statue reacted the moment you got near it, bud. How crazy is that? I have to study this further! This may be the key to learning about the island in the sky!" Gorko reached into his pack and pulled out a thick scroll, which he immediately became engrossed in. "You know...it's said that the streets up there are paved with gold. A river of magical water runs through the heart of it and whoever drinks of it lives forever! The fruit that grows on the trees can cure any sickness! And the people who live up there have wings and shiny halos! I MUST find out more about this magical island!"

"...Okay...well, good luck with that," Mia said, backing away a few steps before turning and hurriedly trotting towards the trees. Link glanced at the ecstatic Goron before hurriedly following her.

**~~(Insert Faron Woods theme here)~~**

"Master, you have now entered Faron Woods." Fi announced as they trekked down the unfrequented path and into the forest. The branches overhead began to intertwine in a twisted tangle, blocking out much of the light as they went deeper into the woods.

"Thank you. That wasn't obvious at all." Mia remarked.

"Looking at the probabilities, it is extremely likely that Zelda is somewhere in the area. I recommend you continue to use your dowsing ability to search for her." Fi concluded, oblivious to Mia's sarcasm.

Link checked his sword. It seemed to react the most when he pointed it towards a bush on the ground a little ways away. The bush seemed to be shaking, though there was no wind. It might have had something to do with the two red monsters that were peering down at it.

"Let's be honest, with ourselves." Link said, only half-kidding. "Surely, Zelda couldn't be that way."

Mia looked pointedly at his glowing sword. "Let's be honest with ourselves. Surely you could use the practice."

"Well so could you." He countered. "There won't be rocks for you to hide behind every time we run into a monster."

"Well, _I_ don't have a weapon." She said moodily. "And you do."

"So what? What if I refuse?"

"Your uncooperativeness is bound to screw everything up some time soon, you know."

"_I'm _uncooperative?"

"Hmph." She said, and then stalked straight towards the monsters and cleared her throat loudly, successfully causing the monsters to notice her.

...Which made Link kind of have to pull out his sword and go and save her.

"That was pretty low." He said after the two Bokoblins had been successfully exterminated.

Mia grinned. "But it worked, didn't it?"

Link shook his head in disbelief and sighed heavily when he noticed that his tunic was now soiled in several places that it hadn't been earlier.

"H-huh? It's gone quiet." The shaking bush thing mumbled and sat up, the grassy leaves on its back retracting and folding inwards. The effect was much like the closing of flower petals, and soon all that was left of the fronds was a clustered bud in the center of the creature's back.

"Uh, hi?" Link ventured. The pear-shaped thing jumped.

"Kwee-koo! Now there's a green one!" It squealed in alarm. "And a gray one! I didn't even know they came in green or grey! Don't hurt me, koo-weep!"

Link and Mia watched in silence as it turned and scurried away, diving into a patch of tall grass.

"...Nice going,"

"What? All I did was say hi. It ran away after seeing you." Link retorted.

"I'm not _that _scary." Mia frowned.

"Master, I have picked up a highly interesting spike in dowsing readings from the creature you just encountered." Fi said.

"But why?" Link asked. "I mean, that's not Zelda."

"Obviously," Mia said.

"Yes. The probability of this life form being Zelda is 5%. Therefore-"

"Wait. So you're saying that there's a 5% chance that this _could_ be Zelda?" Mia interrupted, then went over to where the kiwi-like thing had disappeared before Fi could finish. She rooted around a moment in the tall grass and then produced a squealing creature, nearly the size of her head. "Look Link! We found Zelda!" She hefted it into the air.

Link face-palmed.

Without warning, the pod on the creature's back fuzzy brown back snapped open, thick grass shooting out to hit Mia in the face. She jumped and yelped in surprise, promptly dropping the thing, who curled up on the ground and refused to move.

"Ah. A Kikwi. Kikwis are highly intelligent beings, capable of speech." Fi said as she and Link move closer to the shivering animal.

Mia came over to join them, grumbling and brushing grass off her face.

"Upon further observation...clearly this creature is not Zelda." Fi said.

"You needed further observation?" Mia asked.

"KWEE!" The Kikwi suddenly shrieked, upon realizing it was surrounded again. "Don't eat me!"

"Ugh, we're not going to eat you! You're much too fuzzy."

The Kikwi raised its head and stared at Mia. "Huh? You don't want to eat me?"

"No, we don't want to eat you." Link said.

"Kwee..." The Kikwi sat up. There was a strange vine-like thing curling out of the top of its head. "Come to think of it...why did you fight off all those red monsters? Kee-paleep! I'm Machi! I'm a Kikwi!" He said suddenly. "You seem okay, even though you're scary."

Link smirked at Mia. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"That's weird...kee-koo." Machi said, tilting his head to the side and studying Mia. "A little while ago, I ran into another funny animal with long hair like you, but yellow instead of black."

"Zelda?" Link asked, barely daring to hope that she was still in the area.

"I don't know who she was, but she seemed to be in big trouble when I saw her."

A chill ran up Link's spine.

"She a friend of yours, kwee? A pack of those mean red guys were after her, but she escaped with the Kikwi elder. They went back to his tree. The biggest tree in the woods!"

"Master, we have obtained new information on Zelda's current status." Fi said. "This information indicates that she was assailed by monsters but somehow evaded capture. I infer that she is still in significant danger."

Link swallowed, hard. "Right." He decided. "Let's go."

"If you are heading to the elder, would you mind telling him I'm safe?"

+.+

The elder's tree wasn't as hard to find as Link expected. They just walked a little ways up the path and there is was, in a large clearing, looming up ahead. 'Looming' was a word that turned up from time to time in Skyloft conversations that Link had overheard. But he saw now that nothing those Skyloftians talked about - not storm clouds, not crises, not even Groose - could possibly loom as convincingly as that huge tree, which grew larger with each step he and Mia took in its direction.

"Whoa..." Mia breathed. Secretly, Link felt the same kind of awe.

Huge tree roots grew out of the ground around the tree and formed arches, high enough that they could walk under them. Under one of these arches was a circle of flowers, which in the middle was a huge Kikwi. HUGE. Taller than Groose, even. He appeared to be dozing.

"Hey! Wake up!"

"Mia, be quiet." Link frowned.

"Why?"

"Because he looks like he could probably chew your face off."

"E-Eww!"

"Kweeee..." The Kikwi yawned and looked down at them. "I am Bucha, the Kikwi elder."

"...Hello. Have you seen a girl around here recently? One named Zelda?" Link asked.

"Zelda...?" The massive Kikwi said slowly. "Ah. The girl creature with the blonde hair? She looked like one of your kind. Yes she was with me, kwee."

Link didn't miss the Elder's use of the past tense and felt his heart sink again. "Oh..."

"But now is not the time for such talk. The woods are full of monsters. I worry about my missing tribe, kweee...The shock and worry has made my memories of the girl quite hazy..."

"But Machi said that you would know where she was," Link said.

"What? You say you've met some of my people, kwee?" Bucha stared at them thoughtfully. "So Machi is safe, eh? Ahh, but the monsters! They are still lurking in the forest. I don't dare leave this spot. Two Kikwis are still unaccounted for."

Link and Mia were silent.

"If you calm my worries about my fellow Kikwis, I might be able to remember more about where the girl you seek went off too. Could I ask you to search for them and make sure they are safe, kwee?"

+.+

This time, as Link and Mia went to look for the lost Kikwis, they noticed so many red monsters roaming the forest that Mia didn't insist that Link fight them, and instead spent most of the time hiding behind him.

"Kikwi!"

Link stopped and stared towards the faint squeaking sound on the other side of a thick wall of trees.

"Did you hear that?" He asked Mia.

"No..."

"KIKWI!"

"...Did you hear that?"

"...Yes"

Link began pushing through the thick brush, batting the branches away from his face and kicking past the weeds. On the other side of the trees was a clearing with a single tree in it. A tree with a Kikwi in it and two more of those annoying Bokoblins under it.

"I can throw rocks if you want," Mia said brightly. Link turned to see her peering out at him from behind a tree. He rolled his eyes. And then went to go save the Kikwi.

"You scared off all those red guys!" The Kikwi squeaked a few minutes later, once Link had scared off all those red guys. "So does that mean that you're...you're good guys?"

"Well, yeah," Mia said, coming out from behind her tree. "The Kikwi elder sent us to find you."

"Oh, well, you see, I've got this problem." The Kikwi squeaked, sounding much like a mouse. "My legs have turned to jelly and I can't get down. Think you can help me, kwee?"

"It seems that this Kikwi is unable to descend the tree." Said Fi. "I suggest you find a way to expedite his dismount."

Link and Fi both looked at Mia.

"What?" She demanded.

A few minutes later, she was stepping into Link's hands and he was boosting her up the tree. "I don't see why I have to do this," She grumbled.

"Because you're smaller than me." Link said in his most reasonable voice. "And that branch _probably_ won't break under your weight."

"Thanks." She said, inching her way closer to the Kikwi, who was much smaller than the ones they saw before. It eyed her nervously.

"Hi..." Mia greeted it while carefully balancing on the branch. Excited at the prospect of finally getting out of his precarious perch, the Kikwi hurdled forward into her arms, causing both of them to teeter before...falling. Link winced as they hit the ground, throwing up a poof of dust and dirt.

"Ouch!" The Kikwi rolled out of Mia's arms and a few feet before coming to a stop right against the tree trunk. "That was, uh...effective."

"Uhh." Mia groaned, curling up on the ground where she had fallen.

"...Are you okay?" Link asked.

"No! I feel like pudding!"

"Thanks to you, I'm saved, kee-paleep!" The Kikwi scampered up to Mia, poking her with a paw. "Did you say the Elder is worried about me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, I'm glad to hear he's safe, kwee-koo. My name's Lopsa. If you see the elder, can you please tell him where I am?"

"Dowsing readings indicate there are still Kiwkis to search for." Fi said, dancing out of Link's sword.

"KWEEE!" Lopsa kweee'd, falling face first into the ground, the grass on its back shooting up in a pathetic attempt at camouflage.

Mia glared at Fi. "Fi, you're mean. You scared the Kikwi. Are you okay, Kiwki?"

"Uh-huh." Lopsa stopped shivering. "I guess."

Mia looked up at Link and grinned. "He's cute. Can we keep him?"

"No."

"Aw, come on, please?"

"No." Link said stoically.

"...You're mean."

"Hmph."

+.+

The next Kikwi was on the other side of the big tree, and seemed to be up on a ledge accessible by climbing a wall of thick vines. And when they went back to the elder, he kweed.

"Kwee! So all my fellow Kikwis are well and they want me to stop worrying?" Bucha chortled. "Aha! Excellent! They know me well."

"Yeah, yeah. That's great. Now where's Zelda?" Mia asked.

"You have a real talent for finding whatever is missing, kwee." Bucha went on. "I don't know who you are or where you come from, but you have my thanks."

"So...Zelda?" Link tried.

"Kwee hee hee! I feel much less worried now. I believe I just remembered where that young lady went!"

"Well finally," Mia muttered.

"That young girl...Zelda was that her name? She said she had to travel to the temple deep within these woods, kweee...oho! I tried to warn her how dangerous it was there, but the clever little thing vaulted off my belly and ran off on her own, just the same. I think she headed down that way toward the temple, kwee, but be sure to take great care if you follow her. That area is-"

"-Crawling with monsters, we know." Mia glanced at the sky. "Let's go, Link. It's getting dark out."

This caught Link's attention, for their Loftwings weren't trained to fly at night.

"Oho, I almost forgot!" Bucha said. "As a reward for finding all my fellow Kikwis, I will give you a precious Kikwi heirloom."

"Da na na naa!" Mia announced as Link accepted what the Kikwi was holding out to him; A stick in the shape of a 'Y' with a thick rubber band stretched between both ends. "Now you can even be annoying from a distance!"

"Really."

"Yeah. Here," Mia said, picking something off the ground and putting it into his hand. "Try it out on that curled-up vine over there."

Link took the round seed she had handed him, put it in his new slingshot, pulled the band back, and aimed at a thick vine hanging above a wide gap in the path. The vine unfurled as it was hit, and swung towards them across the middle of the pit. Mia reached out and grabbed it before it could swing back to the other side.

"Kwee hee hee! Now you can access the path into the deep woods, where that old temple is!" Bucha said. "Good luck! I'll be rooting for you!"

Mia giggled.

"What?" Link asked as he took the vine from her.

"He'll be rooting for us. Get it? 'Rooting"?"

Link was silent.

"You know, 'cause he's under a tree root- Aw, never mind."

They somehow managed to get across the gap without loosing various apparatus such as items, gear, or breakfast, and by the time they neared a large, surprisingly well-preserved building quite deep in the forest, Mia's complexion was back from green to its pale normalcy.

The moment they entered the temple, they were plunged into darkness. Freakishly dark darkness. It was like there was an immediate wall between the light outside and the dark of the temple. The only light now came from Link's sword and weird, glowing mushrooms growing in the cracks in the ground. Even then, it was pretty hard to see more than a few feet in front of them.

"Try not to fall into any holes or anything..." Mia muttered, hanging loosely onto his shirt sleeve as not to loose him.

"Yeah." Link inched forward, one hand along the damp wall.

They continued on this way, until Mia shrieked, nearly causing his heart to burst out of his chest. He spun around to see her frantically batting at the air in front of her face. Closer inspection revealed silvery-white strands crisscrossed across her arms. Spider webs.

"Master, the batteries in your Wii remote are running low." Fi said, out of the blue. "Please replace them."

"...What?"

Mia kept batting at the air. "Get them off meeeee!" She wined, staggering this way and that. Link grabbed her arm to prevent her from crashing into a scarily large web stretching from wall to wall and blocking their way.

"Mia. It's just a spiderweb. Suck it up." He said in his second most reasonable voice, slashing the large web in two before she could see it.

"Bluh," She shuddered, flicking sticky strands off her fingers. "Let's get out of here."

"Okay..."

"I think we're supposed to go through that door there now." She muttered.

The door she gestured to was large, and the sword hilt grew warm in Link's hands as they approached it. Without hesitation, he sheathed his sword and heaved the door open. By some mysterious forces, it started closing the moment they were both inside, and something told him that he wouldn't have been able to stop it if he tried. But one quick survey of the room drove any thought of being trapped out of his mind.

The room was empty.

It was spacious, well-lit, and had a large, sealed, golden door in the wall across from them, but it was _empty_.

Link had been so _sure _Zelda would be there. But she wasn't, and he felt like taking his sword and throwing it against the wall. But then a bright sickly yellow light suddenly flooded his vision and they were no longer alone in the room.

Standing in front of them and facing the golden door,was a figure wearing a long, red cape. Link's eyes immediately went to a lethal-looking sword with a glistening black hilt gripped in the figure's gloved hand.

"So...the Skychild made it in. I thought that tornado I stirred up would have tossed and torn you apart, yet here you are. Not in pieces."

"Be careful Link." Mia breathed, so quiet that Link barely heard her as she hid herself behind him. "This guy would probably chew off your face, _and_ swallow."

Link remained silent and blinked as the figure turned, revealing large, disconcertingly black eyes underlined with purple shadow. His hair was short on the left and covered the right side of his face in a sweeping fringe. It was white; the same shiny white as the jumpsuit suit thing with large diamond shapes cut of of it in random places, that he wore.

"Not that your life or death has any consequence." He said, casually. A large, sparkly blue diamond hung from his pointed ear. "It's just the girl that matters now, and I can sense her here...just beyond this door..."

"Who's that?" Link asked out of the corner out of his mouth, keeping his eyes on the figure in front of him.

"That, is the Demon Lord..." Mia started to answer, then stopped as the alleged Demon turned back to them.

"But listen to me. I'm being positively uncivil. Allow me to introduce myself. I am-"

"Debbie, the Demon Lord who presides over this land?" Mia said brightly, coming out from behind Link.

"-The Demon Lord, Ghirahim." The demon corrected acidly. "And what are you?" He curiously turned his attention to Mia. "A mini-Skychild?"

She bristled, then backed away from Link and hid behind one of the pillars that encircled the room.

"Did you really just draw your sword?" Ghirahim turned to Link. "Foolish boy. By all rights the golden-haired girl should have fallen into our hands already." Ghirahim's face contorted into an expression of deep loathing. "She was nearly ours when that servant of the goddess snatched her away." His fingers began to twitch inside their gloves and he ducked his head, but not before Link could see the dangerous gleam in his eyes. "Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? F-"

"Furious, outraged and sick with anger?" Mia said cheerfully. The demon slowly raised his head, and Link winced when he saw his expression.

"...Indeed." Ghirahim snapped his fingers and his diamond-patterned cape disappeared to god knows where. "This turn of events has left me with a strong appetite for bloodshed. Still. It hardly seems fair to take all of my anger out on you."

The look in his eyes contradicted his words quite strongly, Link thought. Noticing this change in atmosphere, he uneasily gripped his sword and shield in his sweaty hands while he waited for his enemy to make his first move.

"Which is why I promise up front not to murder you...No, I'll just beat you within an inch of your life!"

With speed Link wouldn't have expected from someone so tall, Ghirahim was suddenly no more than two feet from him and lashing out with a flurry of strikes that sent him scrambling backwards. He was forced to circle around his foe, whose skills, Link soon discovered, far surpassed any he been taught. The extremely long sword kept him at bay, and every sword slash Link managed to get in, when he wasn't furiously blocking Ghirahim's attacks was too far away to do any damage. He felt like a mouse, a mouse being toyed with until the cat got bored and decided to end the whole thing.

When he did get close enough, Ghirahim simply raised one foot and kicked him straight in the chest, a blow that knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying backwards into a pillar. He lay slumped against the cool stone, wheezing as he struggled to regain his breath, struggled to stand. The taste of blood filled his mouth.

"He's going to throw sharp things at you," Mia called from behind the pillar he had been thrown against.

"What?" He coughed and glanced over at where her face had appeared beside him to see her eyes widen in reaction to something.

"Link, duck!" She said urgently, just as Link heard Ghirahim snap his fingers, a crisp sound that resonated loudly around the room.

Many small, glittery red things were suddenly flying at him and Link hit the ground. He wasn't quite fast enough because one nicked his ear. He felt blood trickle its way slowly down his neck. And still Ghirahim advanced.

"Every time I try to attack him, he blocks it!" Link hissed to Mia.

"Um...move quickly," she answered in a rush. "Pretend you're aiming for a certain place but at the last second hit somewhere else. His chest is his weak point."

No sooner than she had finished her words then a sharp pain tore through Link's own chest, right above his heart. He shrieked as Ghirahim removed his sword from his flesh and held it up to inspect the blood now on the black blade.

"I do so despise being left out of the conversation," He sighed as Link writhed against the wall, his shield clattering to the floor as he pressed his arm against his chest. Blood immediately soaked the sleeve of his tunic, oozing down his arms and making his grip on the sword slippery.

Through waves of pain clouding his senses he dimly registered Mia shouting something at him, and then her screams as Ghirahim drew back his sword, a look of almost childish glee in those dark, sadistic eyes.

"Time to die."


	10. Demon Spit

**A/N: Baka: Idiot/stupid**

**Osuwari: Sit (One of the main running gags from Inuyasha. Instructor Owlen has long whitish/silver hair. So does Inuyasha.)**

**Chapter Ten: Demon Spit**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\/\

There were a lot of things about my world that I missed, I mused as Ghirahim closed in on a wounded Link. Like pepper spray or throwing stars for instance.

"Time to die," Ghirahim said as Link lay slumped against a pillar with blood blossoming from his chest.

"Uh..." I reached down and grabbed my left boot before I could talk myself out of it, pulled it off, and threw it in Le Demon's general direction. Miraculously, it hit him on the shoulder and he whirled around.

"Uhh...Um..." I stuttered some more. "L-leave him alone...?"

Ghirahim drew back slightly and glared at me with his scary eyes as I crept beside Link to make sure he was still breathing. Of course, I only dared to do this because I knew that Wingswhatever probably wouldn't kill me off this early in the story.

"The only reason you're still alive is because I find your ignorance mildly amusing." Ghirahim said eventually. "Had I not have had a gracious tolerance for your impudence thus far, you would be very much dead."

"...What...? Uh, yeah, well, I'm still dang cute!" I looked up and then cringed as he soundlessly walked over and crouched beside us.

"You stayed alive longer than I thought possible out of a soft boy like you." Ghirahim said to Link. "But don't clap for yourself yet. That sword of yours is the only reason you still live." His voice dropped to a whisper, which made him sound even more menacing somehow. "I fear I spent far too long teasing and toying with you. The golden-haired girl's presence has all but faded from this place...No reason to linger here." Ghirahim glanced back at the golden door that Link probably thought Zelda was behind. "Run and play this time. But cross me again...and you're dead."

I shivered as Ghirahim turned his attention to me.

"Goodbye Skychildren...or whatever you are." He finished, and then leaned over with no regards whatsoever to personal space and ran his disturbingly long tongue up my ear.

I jumped as if I had been electrically shocked. "Ugh, UGH! ACK! DEMON SLOBBER!"

"H-hey!" Link protested as I picked up the end of his had and started scrubbing at the side of my head.

"Shut up! Stay still!"

Ghirahim gave another one of his sadistic chuckles and rose to his feet, stepped away, raised his sword, waved it through the air, and disappeared into sparkly diamonds.

I muttered incoherently under my breath and furiously clenched Link's hat in my fist.

"...Are you done?"

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." I dropped Link's hat. Then I noticed just how bad his chest looked and how much blood there was, and proceeded to freak out. "O-oh my gosh...!"

"It's...just a scratch..." Link said, as if he had just gotten a paper cut instead of a huge freaking gash.

"That's not just a scratch! That's a huge freaking _gash_!"

"Mia...it's just a scratch." I watched him wobble to his feet, and then start walking toward the big golden door that had just now begun to mysteriously open.

Noticing with mild concern that it was now quite dark out, and then realizing that I might be stuck here all night with a wounded Link, I ran after him, grabbed his arm, and started pulling him in the direction of a bird statue a few feet away.

"Master, I have a message written in the language of the gods of old. Allow me to translate for you." Fi said, flickering out of Link's sword and hovering above a pond of water in which a smaller version of the statue of the goddess was set in.

Link half glared at me in annoyance started to pull away, but then swayed dizzily on his feet and slumped against the temple wall beside the bird statue.

Disregarding the state he was in, Fi started swirling around the small pond, dancing on the water like a figure skater would on ice. "From the edge of time I guide you, the one chosen to carry out the goddess' mission The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds must travel to two sacred places to purify her body. You stand in one of these places: Skyview Spring. The other is known as the Earth Spring." She started spinning now, which sent cold water spraying all over the place quite annoyingly. "This second spring is hidden away deep within the scorched earth of Eldin."

"Do you mind?" I snapped, dodging water droplets as I grabbed Link's sailcloth from his belt and pushed it into his hands. "Here. Do you think you can you hold this?"

"Eh..." He muttered as he leaned against the side of the temple, his chest rising and falling quicker than normal. I grimaced at the blood staining his tunic.

"The spirit maiden, ever mindful of the heavy task entrusted to her, has set out for this second sacred place." Fi said, still spinning.

A bright light distracted me from Link, and I turned to see another one of those stone tablets shooting out of a beam of light in the goddess statue. "Ahh!" I ducked; it went crashing into the side of the temple behind me and fell to the grass with a _thump_.

"This Ruby Tablet will undoubtedly create another opening in the Cloud Barrier, once placed back in the statue of the Goddess, therefore creating a path to our next destination. I suggest returning to Skyloft at once." Fi said before shooting back into Link's sword.

"Wow. It's not every day you almost get maimed by a magical flying brick." I said then picked up the Ruby Tablet and turned to Link. "Okay, if you can somehow manage to hold onto this and me at the same time...then I think we'll be alright..."

Link blinked at me, then tucked the tablet behind his shield and gingerly looped his arms around my neck, as I shook out the sailcloth. Then I had a scary thought. Both of our lives...were kind of in my hands.

But that weird wind started blowing out of the base of the statue before I could do anything about it. I tightened my grip on the fabric, barely suppressing a shriek of surprise as a sudden gust lifted us into the air and sent us soaring upwards at a breathtaking speed that was even scarier because it was dark out. The night sped past us in a blur, the vague outlines of trees and leaves barely visible as we shot above the tree line and into a patch of thick, damp cloud. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried my best to ignore the weight of Link holding onto me and the pain of my arms nearly being pulled out of their sockets.

"Link! Call your Loftwing!" I gasped, hoping that it wasn't too dark for this as we broke out of the mass of clouds. Somehow, Link managed to put both fingers in his mouth and let loose with a piercingly loud whistle that was painfully close to my ear.

"Ow..."

A few seconds later, the cry of a Loftwing sliced through the darkness.

"Oh, thank the...Goddesses or whatever..."

Once the Loftwing was close enough and flying right under us, Link let go of me, slumping stomach-first onto his bird and ceasing to move; he managed to grab the harness at least before falling unconscious. I let go of the sailcloth with one hand and dropped down behind him, extremely grateful that the Loftwing seemed to know where it was going without me having to try to control it as it began to carry us towards the dark shadow that was Skyloft.

We landed in front of the Academy, where a group of figures was waiting like the last time Link came in unconscious. Well, someone clearly realized that I wouldn't have been able to haul Link anywhere by myself.

There was a pretty big confusing commotion after that.

Someone, who I later found out I had guessed correctly to be Gaepora, plucked Link off of the Loftwing and carried him inside. The other figures, who turned out to be both of the Academy Instructors, reached down to pick up the sailcloth and stone tablet that had been so carelessly dropped. I slid off the bird and landed on the ground with a jolt.

"Be careful, he's hurt!" I warned whoever had picked up Link, following them inside and blinking at the light that came from many fancy lamps hanging on the walls. Doi. Like the blood soaking his tunic wasn't obvious enough.

Instructor Owlan and Instructor Horwell both followed Gaepora into Link's room and slammed the door shut, not even bothering to pretend to notice me.

...

I stared at the closed door for a moment, then shrugged, turned, and started trudging down the hallway to the room with the bathtub in it.

"Well," I said to the air. "If anyone needs me, I'll be scrubbing the demon spit off my ear."

+.+

There were a lot of things about my world that I missed, I mused as I opened the spigot thing over the bathtub and freezing cold water started pouring out, probably pumped straight from the river.

Like showers.

And, like conditioner or whatever, I thought as I tried to untangle my now relatively clean hair.

Still able to feel the gross sensation of slimy demon tongue all over my ear, I shuddered. Then I noticed some jars of something sitting on the tub and reached for one, hoping it was soap. The slick, clay pottery almost slipped out of my wet hands at first, and at first I couldn't figure out how to get the stupid thing open. I kept twisting until I wore my twister out. Whatever that was. And then I noticed that the jar was sealed with a cork. Derp.

That's also when I noticed I was no longer alone in the room.

"Eeeeeeeeek!"I immediately threw the bottle at Groose's head.

He ducked, and I dropped down with a _splash_ that sent freezing water sloshing onto the floor.

"What are you DOING in here? GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" I shrieked, throwing the rest of the jars at him every second word.

He raised his arms protectively over his head. "T-th' door was unlocked! An-"

"I don't CARE! GET OUT!" I punctuated this last sentence by throwing another jar at him, and he turned and dashed out the door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Huh...huh..." I panted, enraged and shivering.

It took me about two seconds to realize that the pile of clothes I had left on the floor...was no longer there.

"Argh!" I jumped out of the tub, swiping a huge fluffy, white towel off of the rack and making sure it sufficed as makeshift clothing before opening the door. Sure enough, Groose and his two friends were tearing down the hall like evil remlits were chasing after them. "AHHHHHHH!"

"Mia?" Karane, the red headed girl who had woken me up earlier today, said. "What's-"

"Gah, Karane, could you...go get my clothes back?" I asked, pointing down the hallway with a furious finger.

Her eyes widened when she realized just who was running away with my clothes. "Um..uh...what?"

"Argh!" I pushed past her, and stormed after the three bozos. For some reason, they had not left the building and instead were leaning against the wall beside the front door and laughing their heads off.

Ha ha. Hilarious.

"GROOSE!" I stalked up to him, throwing a punch at his arm that did little more than hurt my hand. "Ouch!"

"Well, if it isn't th' pipsqueak," He smirked, folding his arms. Cawlin and Stritch grinned obediently as I waved my hand painfully in the air.

"You...you...BAKA! You are so irritating!"

"Says th' idiot who made me lose th' Wing Race! AN' had th' nerve to mess up my hair!"

"You jerk!" I snatched my clothes from them, ignoring their irritating chuckles.

"What's going on out here?" A rather annoyed looking Instructor Owlan in night clothing emerged from Link's room, his long, silver hair loose and not tied back like usual. I resisted the urge to shout 'OSUWARI!' and instead pointed at Groose.

"He stole my clothes!"

"Well she messed up my hair!" Groose pointed back at me.

"That's NO excuse to barge in on me while I'm having a freaking BATH, ya blockhead!"

"Sure it is! Do you know how LONG it takes to do my hair?"

"Do I LOOK like I care?"

"Bitch!"

"Baka!"

"ENOUGH," Instructor Owlan pried us away from each other. "I have had quite enough of your antics for one day. Now you both go to your rooms and stay there!" He said in a menacing instructor voice.

"Fine. I was just leaving anyway," I snapped, spinning away before he could start pushing me towards Zelda's room.

"Hey, I am NOT done with you," Groose said, glowering darkly.

"Go away!" I snapped childishly before stalking into Zelda's room and slamming the door shut behind me. My hair dripped onto my shoulders and made me shiver.

There was a loud click from the direction of the door.

I whirled around to see nothing out of the ordinary...until I tried opening the door and found...that it was now locked. From the outside.

"Ooo, the nerve!" I fumed. "I don't even belong here at the academy! You can't just lock me in here!" The sounds of receding footsteps told me that whoever had placed me in this predicament either hadn't heard me, didn't care, or both.

How I wished I had a sword.

...Like, way back when my ear was getting slobbered over.

Oh. Hey. Wait a minute. Link's old sword.

...

...

...Unfortunately for whoever had locked me in here, they didn't know that I knew something that no one else knew.

There was a secret way in and out of Zelda's windowless room.

...Just where, exactly, was this secret exit, you ask?

Pfft. Like I'm gonna tell you.

+.+

I don't know if I've already mentioned this or not, but Skyloft is kind of creepy at night. There's the issue of having to walk past the graveyard to get to the Statue of the Goddess. And there were huge bats on steroids that seemed to be really attracted to my hair for some reason, and followed me all the way to my destination, their red eyes glinting creepily. And there were piles of green slime that were alive, but luckily for me moved really slowly and couldn't get across the gaps in the secret path to the statue.

And to sum up this pleasant little night outing, when I got to the Statue and entered the Sword Chamber, the sword was not there.

"Well...isn't that just _awesome_?"

+.+

You may not know this, but the academy windows are covered with large pieces of wood that could open in towards the room very quietly Which...is kind of like a burglar magnet. If there were any burglars in Skyloft, which I highly doubted. The cheery flower boxes and neon pink houses everywhere were bound to scare them away, if the demonic remlits didn't do the trick.

"Link?" I hissed into the dark, hoping that I hadn't just opened the window to someone elses' room.

"Mia?"

Oh good.

"I'm coming in."

"...Okay..."

By hefting the huge slab of wood up with one hand, I managed to hook one leg over the windowsill and jump down into Link's room without getting hit in the head by that monstrously heavy wood. It slammed shut behind me with a cringe-worthy _bang!_

We cringed.

"Ever heard of using the door?" Link asked from somewhere in the dark.

"Some lowlife locked me into Zelda's room. You got a light in here?"

"Someone_ locked_ you in Zelda's room?"

"Well, you see, Groose-"

"Never mind." Link hurriedly interrupted. "There's a candle over there. On the desk."

I felt my way over to the desk and fumbled around, knocking some books and stuff on the floor before finally locating a waxy candle stick.

"...There's matches beside it,"

"So." I said, swiping a match along the stone wall. A flame sparked to life, and I held the match to the wick of the candle, which quickly filled the small room with a warm glow. "You survived your first temple."

"Barely," Link grimaced. The way he was propped up in his bed I could see a gauzy, white, bandage of some sort, wound around his chest and over his right shoulder.

"And your first encounter with that demon dirtbag." I added.

"You mean we have to see him again?" Link looked hilariously horrified, though I don't really blame him.

"...Yeah. Probably. At least he didn't lick your ear," I shuddered.

There was a pause, in which we stared at the flickering candle and the shadows of the flame dancing on the wall.

"You know..." Link said finally. "If you had had my old sword..."

"Ugh." Not him too.

"...You don't want a sword?"

"I might if I knew how to use a sword." I said, sitting in the chair in front of his desk and propping my chin up in my hands. "And where to find one. I went back to the statue, but it wasn't there."

"Well...Gaepora's the only other one who knows about the Sword Chamber, right? So maybe he has it. Speaking of Gaepora, he also said I should probably take it easy and stay in Skyloft for a few days...so maybe you could find someone who could teach you how to use it in the mean time."

"Like...you?"

"Gaepora said I should probably take it easy and stay in Skyloft for a few days...so maybe you could find someone _else_ who could teach you how." Link hurriedly corrected himself.

"Hmph." I hmphed. "Does anyone else even know how to use a sword around here?"

"Well there's..." Link paused. "Actually...I don't really know. Instructor Owlan always taught me by myself..."

"Okay...what about the Instructors then?"

"Well, you're not technically part of the academy," Link pointed out. "So...I don't know if they would teach you or not."

"Oh."

"You'll just have to find out for yourself who actually knows how to use a sword. You could start by getting out of my room so I can go to sleep." He suggested. "Then tomorrow, start asking with the seniors and work your way down from there."

"Okay!" I pushed back the chair. "You mind if I use your door instead of climbing out the window?"

"Go right on ahead," Link muttered. "Oh, and Gaepora's room is on the second floor, and at the very opposite end of the hall as the stairs, if that's where you were planning to go."

"Thanks kindly." I said, sauntering over to his door and throwing it open with a flourish.

"Yeah, whatever."

+.+

"Okay," I muttered to myself as I crouched outside of Gaepora's door and tried to stay off of a rather squeaky part in the floor that I kept stepping on. "Just go in, fumble around in the dark until you find the sword, and get out. Easy."

I turned the huge silver handle and opened the door, peeking into the room...which was fully lit.

Gaepora was sitting at a large wooden desk strewn with random papers and scrolls and a huge book that made War and Peace look like a bedtime story.

"Hmm?" He looked up before I could make an epic escape. "Why if it isn't Mia! I heard you got into a spat with Groose earlier, and Instructor Owlan had to lock the two of you in your rooms!" He chortled, closing the book he was reading and turning to me with interest. "I see you are living up to your designation as trouble maker! How ever did you get out of Zelda's room?"

"Erm, well, there's this secret passage..." I said, disregarding the 'trouble maker' comment, which would have annoyed me at any other point in time. "And I was just trying to find...hey! That sword!" I noticed Link's old sword leaning against Gaepora's desk and pointed at it. "Um, could I have it please?"

Gaepora blinked. "I don't see why not," He said slowly. "It would be rather wise to have something to defend yourself while on your journeys."

"Yes," I agreed, and went and picked up the sword, figuring it was okay. It was heavier than I expected. I slung the sheath over my shoulders, slid on the thick leather belt that had also been on the floor, and cinched it around my virtually non-existent hips.

"Now." I said, the end of the slightly too-big sword sheath patting against the back of my legs as I went over to Gaepora's window. "If you'll excuse me, I simply must be going,"

"Wait!" Gaepora stood as I raised the slab of wood. "You and Link made it to the Surface, did you not? What was it like? Were you able to find out anything about Zelda's whereabouts?"

I frowned. "Didn't Link fill you in on our little trek through the forest already?"

"Forest? So they do exist! What was it like?"

"It was, er, big and green and monster infested?"

"Yes, but there were trees, yes?" Gaepora asked impatiently, not seeming to hear the monster part.

"Um...yeah."

"Ahh..." Gaepora rested his chin on his chest. "Please, continue. I wish to know everything!"

"...You're kidding, right?"

"Well, I am dreadfully curious."

"Well, ahm, my...feet hurt." I said, fidgeting and shooting glances at the window.

"...I see. Very well, you may go. But I expect to hear a full account of your experience on the surface come daybreak." Gaepora said sternly.

+.+

_Yeah sure,_ I thought as I crawled back into Zelda's room a few minutes later via secret entrance. _Like that's gonna happen._

+.+

Daybreak brought with it the mystery of my door now being unlocked, the anticipation of learning how to wield a sword, and...the difficulty of actually finding someone willing to teach me how to wield a sword.

"Hey Karane. Karane?" I said, knocking on the door with 'Karane' inscribed on it with girly pink cursive script. After knocking for a few minutes, it finally flew open to reveal a squinty-eyed Karane with her hair tied up in various places with strips of old cloth.

"What do you want?" She growled menacingly with her hands clenched into fists.

"Um...never mind!" I squeaked and ran away down the hallway.

+.+

I couldn't find Pipit anywhere. After wandering around the academy getting lost a few times, I decided to approach Fledge, one of the younger students/knight-in-training/whatever who was down by the little kitchen and trying to lift a rather large, wooden barrel. After asking him where Pipit was, I found out that he had left earlier that morning and Fledge didn't know when he'd be back.

"Oh..well, do you take sword training?" I asked him.

"Why no." Fledge looked surprised. "Not very many of us ever learn how to use swords."

"...Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of being a knight? I mean, what good is a knight without a sword?"

"Well...I dunno," Fledge said, staring at the barrels with a woeful expression. "The only ones who are half good with swords are Link, Pipit, Stritch, and Groose."

Gulp.

=.=

"Hey Stritch!" I said, after stealthily climbing the tree he was under, clenching my knees around a branch, and swinging down backwards in front of his face. "What'cha dooooin?"

"Ahh!" He shrieked, throwing his book up in the air. "Don't hurt me!"

"Why would I hurt you?" I frowned as he scrambled a few feet away, wide-eyed, as if he hadn't ever seen a strange girl hanging from a tree before.

"W-what do you want?" He said, looking very much alarmed.

"...No one sent me. All I want is to see if-"

"What bugs?" He demanded, trembling now.

"Um, I didn't say anything-"

"I HAVEN'T BEEN DOING ANYTHING WITH BUGS!" He yelped, taking off in a random direction randomly.

Well then.

+.+

"No one wants to teach me anything," I grumbled to Link, sticking my head through his window after that strange episode where Strich got all spazzy.

"Really." He said, not sounding at all surprised. "You tried everyone? How about Groose? He was the only other one who was kind of good at sword fighting."

"What? Are you mad!?"

"Well who else is going to teach you?" Link said all annoyed-like. "You want to be able to defend yourself, right? It wouldn't hurt to ask Groose."

"...So...did Wings put you up to this, or what?"


	11. See you Tommorow

**A/N: One of my favourite chapters!**

**Chapter Eleven: See You Tomorrow**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Groose  
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"...Do you hunger to know what these big, lovely eyes will behold? Shall I begin?"

"Sure, whatever," Groose answered the fortune-teller. "But I want t' hear somethin' about Link though, got it? _Link_." He stressed as Sparrot began making strange motions with his hands over his crystal ball, which began to glow with a pearly white light.

Some pretty weird stuff had been happening lately. And it all started with that girl falling out of the sky and on his head. Then Zelda had disappeared, and a weird green pillar of light appeared in the sky east of Skyloft. Then Link had suddenly started acting all buddy-buddy with the Headmaster, and disappeared for a whole day, returning the following night with his clothes all torn and bloody, from what Groose could see from where he had been watching from the academy roof.

Something strange was going on around Skyloft, and whenever Groose subtly asked anyone about it, they either got this genuinely puzzled expression on their face, were too distracted by his glorious hair to answer, or clammed up and refused to talk. And that's why Groose was sitting here, now, at the fortune teller's booth in the bazar, intent on finding out what the heck was going on and why everyone was acting so weird. He hoped.

"Hm. Hmm. Hmmmmm. The road to greatness, on which you are destined to travel on is long and full of twists and turns."

"No. _Link_." Groose repeated, holding back a sneeze at the strong, spicy smell coming from several incense sticks hanging from strange purple and red lamps.

"Beauty and wisdom are rarely found in the same person. Consider throwing yourself down a hole."

"Ugh," Groose rested his arms on the counter and dropped his head heavily down onto his arms, making sure he didn't mess up his hair. What a waste of ten rupees.

"Today, you will be stalked by someone scared of remlits," Sparrot said.

Groose looked up at this just as a shrill scream made everyone in the Bazar stop what they were doing and spin around in the direction of this new disturbance.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!"

Groose stared as Mia came tearing into the tent, a streak of white fur chasing cheerfully behind her.

"IT'S BAAAAAAACK!" She shrieked, charging recklessly in Groose's direction. He hurriedly jumped to the side and she scrambled over the fortune-teller's booth.

The remlit came to a disappointed stop. "Mew!"

"Ahh!"

"Mew!"

"Ahh!"

Groose watched this for a few more seconds before sticking his head over the side of the booth to see Mia huddled by the feet of the fortune teller, who appeared to be unfazed, and watched everything with a passive look. Upon seeing Groose, Mia's face contorted slightly into an expression of mild irritation, then changed to fear as the remlit gave another mew.

"Mew!"

"Groose, do something!" She whimpered.

"...You're scared of remlits..." Groose observed, narrowing his eyes.

"Well THIS remlit is still alive, despite having been thrown off Skyloft two times. One of those times, its ears were tied in a knot! I swear, it's possessed or something!"

Groose peered down at the remlit. "...How do you know this is th' same one?"

"It has green eyes! I have green eyes! It's the only remlit I've seen on Skyloft that has green eyes!"

Groose frowned. "Maybe it's your own personal stalker remlit?"

"Gah!" Mia shuddered. "Don't say that!"

"Hmph." Groose grunted. "Look, that remlit is not gonna hurt you."

"I'm pretty sure it most definitely will," She shot back.

"Pipsqueak. You've got a sword," He pointed out, noticing she had a sword. "Take it out an' defend yourself. Problem solved."

"I might if I knew how to use a sword," He heard her say, and then the entire fortune teller's booth came cascading down to the ground. Colorful lanterns went rolling everywhere, and the incense sticks that had been in them spilled out and clattered to the floor. In the midst of everything, Mia curled up in a ball and the remlit purred and curled up beside her.

"Eeek! Eeek! EEEEK!" She squawked, trying to scoot away as its fur touched her arm. She bumped into something else, a small table that held various stacks of thin, coloured paper that went flying everywhere like big white leaves, much to the dismay of Sparrot.

"Pipsqueak! Calm! Down!" Groose grunted over the chaos, stomping over to Mia and prying the remlit off of her. He raised it up to eye level and stared into its big, green eyes. "Why th' heck would you be so scared of a remlit for?"

"Mew?"

"AHH!"

"You stay out of this!" Groose shot at Mia, then turned back to the remlit.

"And you, pickin' on small females like that." He set the remlit down on the floor and patted it on the head. "I admire your attack strategy."

"Hey," Mia said indignantly as he turned and went out the nearest tent flap. "Wait!" She said, getting up and running after him, leaving the hubbub of the messed-up tent behind.

"What now?" He turned with a glare.

"I...I need...you to teach me...how to fight..." She said, hesitating as if each word pained her to say it.

He snorted. "You're funny, Pipsqueak. Hilarious. Haha." He turned and stomped away in disgust.

"No, I'm serious." She persisted, trotting after him as he continued down the cobblestone path.

"You want ME to help YOU? Why would you need training anyways?"

"So I..." She hesitated. "So I don't end up like Link."

Groose whirled on her. "End up like Link? What's wrong with Link?"

"Wouldn't you like to know,"

Groose frowned. "Find someone else." He said shortly. "I'm busy."

"Oh yeah? With what? Your hair?" Mia said mockingly.

Groose glared at her. "As a matter of fact, it's still messed up thanks to you, Pipsqueak!"

"Hmm. Well, I'll do it again if you don't teach me, how about that?" She grinned triumphantly, folding her arms and acting all impressed with how threatening she probably thought she sounded.

Groose snorted, then eyed her scrawny figure. "Aren't you a little short to be able t' do that?"

Mia's eyes flashed and snarled, "I did it last time, didn't I? Just teach me! Or I'll...I'll-"

"What? Throw soap at me again?"

Mi was silent for a moment, thinking. Then she raised her chin, and grinned somewhat evilly. "I'll do something unpleasant to your hair while you're sleeping."

"...It's called a lock, Pipsqueak."

"It's called a key, Ginger," Mia mimicked his voice. "And I'm pretty sure Gaepora has extra..." She trailed off meaningfully.

Groose promptly ran out of evasive answers at the thought of his hair getting messed up in his sleep. Or worse. He snorted and whirled around, dashing back to the academy. Throwing open the heavy doors, he turned around to see if he was being followed...and promptly ran into Gaepora.

"Oh! Uh, Headmaster!" He said, noticing with slight disconcertment, Gaepora's stony expression.

"Ah. Groose. I was looking for you," Gaepora said, his large eyebrow furrowing over flinty eyes. "Am I to understand that it was you who hid Link's Loftwing on the day of the Wing Ceremony? And also threw eggs at Link along with your two friends?"

Groose gulped. "Huh? Uh, what? I mean, what are you talking about?"

"That right there, stealing your opponent's bird, _cheating_, along with threatening the younger students if they said anything about it, not to mention your inappropriate behaviour around the bathing rooms..."

Groose angrily ducked his head and shuffled his feet, barely able to hold back the 'she started it' that was bubbling up inside him.

"...Is grounds for expulsion." Gaepora finished sternly.

Groose froze. Link was already a senior. Before him. And if Groose was expelled, then...then that would mean that Link would graduate before him.

"Unless..."

Groose's head snapped up as Gaepora looked out a propped-open window to their right. He followed the Headmaster's gaze and saw Mia sitting in a tree with her back to them. She swung her legs in what Groose thought was an annoyed manner and reached up to bat away the leaves drifting down from the branches above her.

"Unless what?" He demanded.

"...Unless, you teach Link's companion the basics of sword play and self-defence."

Groose blinked. "Ah, what? Seriously?" He said weakly, though filing away the title of 'travelling companion' for future investigation.

"It's not been long since you learned these things yourself." Gaepora looked at him. "I'm sure you remember how hard it can be,"

"Well, yeah," Groose flushed and looked away, remembering all too well Instructor Horwell's gruelling classes of torture he had taken only because Link had taken it the year before. "But why do I gotta do it? Why don't you ask Pipit or someone else?"

"Pipit is...away," Gaepora said shortly. "And with Link injured, you are the only other one with the knowledge required to train Mia, what with all those self-defence classes you've been taking with Instructor Horwell and all."

"Aw..." Groose scowled.

Don't train the pipsqueak, get expelled. Train Mia, still have a chance at fully graduating before Link.

"Ugh! Fine!" He snapped. Gaepora smiled a rather wide, a rather knowing, and a rather irritating smile, and Groose turned, stomping outside. A headache had smouldered to life, pounding in his temples. Now more angry then confused, he ground his palms into his eyes until little white flickers of light exploded in the dark.

"Hey. Pipsqueak." He said, looking up into the tree. "Come down here an' I'll teach you how t' defend yourself,"

She stared at him suspiciously.

"...What? Really?"

"...Just as long as you tell me just where you an' Link disappeared to yesterday." He added, as an afterthought. There was no sense in wasting a good opportunity, and she didn't have to know that he had no choice whether she decided to answer or not.

"So...you'll teach me basic self-defence techniques...as long as I give you the dirt on where we went...?" She said, holding onto a thick branch and dropping out of the tree. Her boots scraped along the trunk, sending pieces of bark fluttering to the ground.

"...S'right." He said, holding back a smirk.

She hesitated for the briefest second before tossing her head back. "Fine. Whatever. Deal."

Groose grinned and spat into his hand before extending it out towards her.

"Ah, eww. Really?" She muttered, before resigning to spiting into her own hand and gingerly grabbing hold of his.

"Deal?" Groose repeated.

"Deal." She agreed, albeit, disgustedly. "But, seriously? Like, ick."

Groose grinned, extremely impressed with himself. Now with any luck, he'd be able to wheedle some info out of the pipsqueak. And plus, now he had an excuse to put her through annoying and strenuous activities.

"Sooo...are ya gonna start anytime soon or what?" Mia said finally, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Nope." He said.

"What? I just _spit_ on my _hand_ because you said you would. And now you're telling me you're not?"

"Pipsqueak. Calm. Down." Groose groaned in exasperation. "What I meant was, I'm not gonna start teachin' you how to use a _sword _right this second."

"Why not?" She predictably demanded.

"Because from what I've heard, you're leavin' with..._Link_ again soon. And unless you're a Mary-sue or something, it would take you a lot longer than three days t' just scratch the surface on Swordplay."

"..."

"So...let's start with the basics, I think," He said, after a moment. "Right now, if you tried goin' up against...well...pretty much anyone other than Fledge and maybe Stritch, you would probably get snapped in half or somethin'."

She made an indignant sound and Groose raised both his hands in a 'calm down' motion.

"All I'm sayin', is that if you ever want t' be able t' hold out against someone attacking you, you need t' build up strength first, okay?"

"...Not really."

"So..." Groose grinned. "You can start by running."

She turned to stare at him.

"Around th' whole outside of Skyloft."

Her eye began to twitch.

"Twenty times, t' build up your endurance." He finished.

"...You're kidding me."

He smirked.

She didn't move, and he forced his smirk into a fierce expression, narrowing his eyes and stepping closer, using his height as an advantage and looming over her in what he hoped would be an intimidating manner.

"Pipsqueak?"

"Yes Ginger?" She glared up at him, though he noticed something like nervousness flicker in her eyes.

"Get going!" He said, in a harsher tone. "An' don't call me 'Ginger'!"

She kicked her boots off and paused, before taking off with a death glare, her bare feet kicking up leaves.

Well then.

Groose grinned, as he strolled leisurely back to the academy, again extremely impressed with himself for thinking of an idea such as the brilliant one he had just thought of.

If things went as he hoped, and she did follow his instructions, Mia would be too exhausted for him to teach him anything else.

It was a foolproof plan.

.+.

Or so he thought, before she burst through the door of his room less than an hour later, panting, pink-faced and beaming. Groose jumped.

"What- how? How are you still standing?"

"Two beautiful words. Stamina. Fruit." She grinned, strands of hair that had come out of her braid sticking to the perspiration on her forehead. She brushed them away and flopped down on his floor. "With that stuff, you could run forever! And really fast!"

"...Yeah, well, you probably won't find as much anywhere else as you do in Skyloft," He pointed out gruffly. "So, that kind of was a big waste of time, you know?"

"Whatever." She said, then caught sight of the large red punching bag in the corner of his room. "Is that Link's face on there?" She giggled, rising to her feet and going over and examining it closely. She snickered, "Wow, whoever drew this seriously needs help. The only reason I could tell it was Link was because of the gold hair. I mean, what is that supposed to be?"She gestured to what was supposed to be the nose.

"...Pipsqueak?"

"Yes?"

"Get out!"

"Hmph. Fine. But I'm taking this sad piece of epic fail with me," She peeled the crudely drawn portrait off of the punching bag.

"Urgh."

Less than an hour later, she stuck her head into his room again.

"Hey Ginger!"

"Ahh! What?" He demanded, whirling around from where he had been staring sadly into the full length mirror at his hair, which seemed to be...off for some reason.

_Some_ reason.

"Here! I made you a better one!" She said, holding a drawn-on piece of paper in each hand. "And also one of me. So now you can put Link on one side..." She slapped the only slightly improved in Groose's opinion, picture of Link on one side, "...and me on the other. And now whenever one of us is annoying you-"

"Like right now?"

"...You can take it out on these shockingly realistic renditions instead of, you know, us."

"Hmm. I dunno, I think it would be a lot more satisfying to stick you up on the statue of the goddess all night or somethin' for being so annoying."

"That would be mean." She said.

Groose huffed. "Get out!" He angrily turned back to the mirror, seeing in the reflection both his peeved expression and Mia hesitating in the doorway.

"Groose?"

"What?" He growled.

"See you tomorrow!" She grinned before flouncing out of his room and slamming the door behind her.

.+.

Over the eastern edge of Skyloft, darkness was thinning to the pale violet of dawn when Groose left the academy the next day.

And the sun had risen into the sky, a glowing ball of yellow as Groose re-entered the academy, having successfully accomplished what he had set out to do.

"Pipsqueak!" He bellowed, banging on Zelda's door with a fist. "Wake up!"

"Ugh...Go away," She groaned sleepily.

"Pipsqueak, do NOT make me come in there an' drag you out!" Groose said, picking up the pace with the pounding.

"Alright, jeez, I'm coming, I'm coming." She snapped. He heard her feet hit the floor, and heard her pad towards the door with a muffled cuss word or two.

"S'about time," Groose said as she pried open the door, crinkly eyed, boots in hand, and a dark look on her sleepy face that intensified as she noticed it wasn't even light out.

"The sun's barely up!"

"Yes...?" Groose said, waiting for her point.

"What is this, boot camp?" She grumbled.

"Somethin' like that."

"Aw, ow, uh, I'm stiff all over," She complained, sitting down heavily and proceeding to slowly pull her boots.

Groose just smirked.

"You knew this was going to happen! That's why you didn't warn me about using a bunch of stamina fruit right away, didn't you?" She said accusingly

Groose shrugged innocently. "Well, now you know for next time. DON'T. EAT. THE STAMINA FRUITS. YOU'LL RUN A LOT HARDER THAN YOU'RE USED TOO AND GET REALLY STIFF."

"...Next time?"

Groose grinned maliciously. "Get going." He said, gesturing to the nearest door once she had gotten up.

"...N-no..." She muttered.

Groose, who had been anticipating this, grinned and brought the green-eyed remlit he had hunted for earlier that morning out from behind his back.

"Mew!"

"GAH!" Mia jumped. "Hey, that's _my_ remlit!"

"Yup. Now you run or I'll sic..." Groose frowned down at the ball of white fur. "Uh, er, what should I name it?"

"How about you let the readers decide?" Mia suggested, keeping her gaze locked on the fur in Groose's arms.

"Huh?"

"Oh...nothing,"

"Hmph. Get going!"

"You're crazy, you know that?! What if I fall off of Skyloft or something? It's barely light out! There are bats! And living slime!"

Groose lowered the remlit to the ground, who yawned, stretched, and began to scamper happily towards Mia.

"Mew!"

"Ahh! Alright, alright! I'm going!"

.+.

Groose was waiting for her beside the river, a few feet away from the bridge that connected both areas of Skyloft.

"Hand me your sword," he said once she had stopped panting.

"...Okay..." She said, reaching behind her head and awkwardly pulling her sword out, holding it by the hilt and extending it towards him.

"Alright, first of all, you never hand someone your sword like that," Groose said gruffly, staying well out of the way untill she lowered her blade. "You hold it by the flat side of th' blade, handle pointing away from you, like any kind of knife. Got it? An' you better. It's common sense."

In answer, she slowly flipped her sword around, cautiously holding the flat part of the blade and passing it, handle first out to him.

"Okay, good. Now. Let's pretend you actually know how t' use a sword. What do you do if you somehow lose your weapon while in the middle of an attack?" Groose tossed her sword casually to the side. It bounced slightly, and landed on the grass with a soft rustle.

"Um, go pick it up?" She said.

Groose went and picked it up. And then threw it into the river beside them. It sank rapidly, small bubbles glittering and racing upwards to the surface of the water.

"There," he said, satisfied.

"Was that really necessary?" Mia said, eying the bubbling water with a frown. "I mean, now one of us has to get our clothes wet. And I'm telling you right now, it's going to be the idiot who threw it in, not me."

"Hmph." He crossed his arms. "Say your enemy now has your sword. What do you do?"

"...Run away?"

"An' what if you can't run away?"

"Umm...I dunno."

Groose sighed. "You use whatever you can. In most cases, meaning your fists."

Mia stared, unblinking for several seconds. "Okay, but what if someone rudely licks your ear, happens to have, like, telekinesis, can materialize sharp stuff out of thin air, and normal swords won't hurt them?"

"...Then...you run screaming."

"Ah." She looked at him for a minute, then her eyes widened, and she pointed at something behind him. "Look! A distracting distraction!"

"Huh?" Groose half-turned.

With both hands, Mia pushed him forwards, and into the river.

The shock of the cool water, along with the realization that his hair was now probably ruined, made Groose snort water up his nose. He coughed violently and struggled upwards, fighting against the moderate current that could potentially drag him off the edge of Skyloft.

"ARGH! PIPSQUEAK!" He spluttered, strands of no longer perfectly-styled hair falling into his face as he broke above the surface of the water. "I AM SO GOING TO-"

"Groose, you may pretend to dislike me...but deep down inside...you know you hate me." She said very seriously, crouching down on the edge of the riverbank to peer down at him. "Now go get my sword."

Something inside Groose snapped. Hanging onto the river bank with one hand, he managed to heave himself up just enough to grab her by the arm.

"Hey, what...?" Her eyes widened and she tried to tug away from him. "Get off you ginger!"

Groose narrowed his eyes and threw himself backwards, pulling her with him. She jerked away the instant they hit the water, and he lost sight of her as she thrashed her arms and struggled to the surface, millions of tiny bubbles clouding the water.

"Uh, hey!" She spluttered when he also broke the surface. "Dude!"

Groose didn't answer, just concentrating on not letting go of the edge as Mia splashed her way through the water by moving her arms in strange strokes Groose had never seen before; her movement hindered somewhat by the weight of her wet clothes.

She frowned at him and kicked her feet. "Really? Really?"

"Mia!" Someone called from above them.

Gully was peering down at them, his shock of tangled brown hair looking in more of a disarray than normal. "Hi Mia!"

"Oh, hey Gully!" She grinned, wiping hair out of her face. "Help me up?"

"Haha! Groose!? I didn't know you knew how to swim!" Gully laughed.

"I don't," Groose muttered.

"What?" Mia looked at him. "Seriously?"

"Ha! Haha!" Gully laughed, pointing at Groose, who glowered darkly at the both of them. "You don't know how to swim!"

"Ha! Haha!" Mia laughed, drifting over to where Gully was. "Now get me out of here before I get killed for laughing at him." She muttered, taking Gully's outstretched hand and pulling herself from the river, water streaming off her hair and darkening the colour of her clothes.

Groose growled, dragging himself out on the river bank, Mia's dripping sword in hand.

"Hey, where are you going now? Can I come with you?" Gully asked as Mia twisted the water out of her braid and let it fall against her back. The tip of her hair curled, sticking to her dripping sweater.

"No." Groose said.

"Why not?" Mia pulled the wet collar of her sweater away from her neck in an annoyed manner.

"Because YOU need to go get out of those wet clothes and meet me in my room where you WILL learn how to throw a punch or else, and you," he said to Gully. "need to beat it before I throw YOU in the river."

.+.

"What took so long?" Groose snapped, carefully wringing the last of the water out of his pompadour just as Mia and Gully, who had stubbornly been waiting outside of Groose's door while Groose changed into un-water-soaked clothes, stomped into his room.

"Do you know how hard it is to get out of wet jeans?" Mia retorted, pulling at the shoulders of the slightly too-big, pale pink dress she wore. "And would it totally kill Zelda to own pants?" She still wore her big black boots, which gave a rather strange effect to her whole...outfit. "One word and you die," She said, getting an eyeful of Groose and Gully's smirking faces."Now! Teach me how to...punch things! Yeah!"

"Hmph," I ain't teachin' no girl in a dress," Groose crossed his arms.

"Well, why not?" She demanded.

"It's...demeaning."

"...Well then...just pretend that I'm Zelda or something!" Mia grabbed a potted plant off his bookshelf and started dancing around his room, strumming the feathery leaves like Zelda would her harp strings.

"Oh youth, guided by the freaky blue spirit thing, uh...guide...whatever...earth and sky...yeah..."

Groose made a leap and grabbed up his jar of Chu-Chu hair gel, where it was sitting on a small table beside his mirror, before Mia could knock it over like everything else she was bumping into. Books slid off their meticulously stacked piles, wooden figures he had carved for Zelda clunked to the floor, and letters he had never given to Zelda but meant to, came fluttering out of the books that had slid off of their meticulously stacked piles.

"See?" Mia opened her eyes and grinned as Groose and Gully stared at Groose's room, which was messy to begin with, but now was in shambles. "Aren't I like Zelda?"

"Uh, no!" Groose scoffed, snatching the plant back from her. "Zelda has yellow hair, duh!"

"Duh!" She shot back.

"Duh!" Gully threw in from where he was lying with his legs under Groose's bed, batting boredly at a yellow tassel of yarn on a blanket.

"An' she's really smart, an' she's not a pipsqueak, an' she's beautiful," Groose continued dreamily. "An' she has a great voice, and she'd never dance around my room, knockin' stuff over, an' she-"

"Yeah, okay, we get it," Gully said. "Mia, let's get out of here already!"

"Well, um, okay..."

Groose snapped back to attention. "No!" He snapped and put the plant back on his bookshelf. "You," he glared at Mia, "are NOT gettin' out of this that easy."

Mia rolled her eyes at Gully and sighed, stepping over various objects obscuring the floor. "Fine. So...like, uh, this?" She curled her fingers into a fist and punched at the side of his punching the bag with Link's face on it, barely making even a slight impact.

"Wait." Groose stepped forward. "If you're gettin' attacked, where do you think you should aim on your attacker first?"

"Oh, hmm, I don't know, their face maybe?"

"You may think that, but because y' want the fight to end, you want t' disable whoever's attacking you as soon as possible so you can escape. So...if y' want to knock someone out, aim for th' throat. Go for th' more sensitive areas, like th' sides of th' neck. This'll make it harder for them t' breathe, and maybe give you enough time t' get out of that situation."

"Well, excuuuse me," She muttered, and then threw another punch at Link's face.

"Aw, no, your hands are all wrong," Groose scowled. "When you make a fist, you DON'T put your thumb on the inside, because if you do and you hit somethin', you could break your thumb,"

"Oh," She said, looking down at her hands. "So...like this?" She moved her thumb on the outside of her fist and proceeded to jab at the punching bag with tiny hits.

"...Better," Groose sighed, "But you want t'-"

"Aw, this is boring," Gully inturrupted. "We should go...to the Lumpy Pumpkin!"

Mia dropped her fists.

"Soup would be great," she said with feeling, and they both turned to look at Groose.

"Oh, no," he said, "I am NOT takin' nobody anywhere!"

Mia and Gully both stared at him silently.

"Please?" Gully finally asked.

"NO."

"Please?" Mia made bambi eyes. Whatever that meant. Groose felt himself cracking, and he sweat-dropped, struggling to stay unyielding. Then Gully started pouting, and it was all over.

"Ugh, FINE."

.+.

Daylight was already fading by the time they landed on the Lumpy Pumpkin island, beside the Lumpy Pumpkin soup house. Which, strangely enough, was built in the shape of a lumpy pumpkin.

"Wow...uh, wow," Mia said, shrinking a little closer to Groose as they walked through the door. The Lumpy Pumpkin was packed. Packed almost to bursting with Skyloftians, rough-looking guys Groose hung out with sometimes, and more rough-looking guys Groose had never seen in his life.

The air was warm here, in contrast to the crispness of the cool, almost-night air outside. The spicy smells of pumpkins and the soup the Lumpy Pumpkin was known for, floated thickly through the air.

"Wow!" Gully said as they carefully moved through the crowd of laughing, talking, and drinking Skyloftians and others. Each and every table they saw was filled, so they opted for three tall bar stools.

"Oy! No kids allowed!" The beefy bartender, who was also the owner bellowed, from behind the counter where he was wiping a dripping mug with a well-worn cloth.

"Oy! I'm not a kid!" Mia huffed, puffing out her cheeks in annoyance.

"...What? Ya shore?" The bartender came closer, squinted at her.

"Yes!"

Groose looked at her. She DID look rather like a small child.

"Ya shooooore?"

"...Back home, I could drop school legally," She offered. "And drive."

"...Okay, fine then, I guess," the bartender said doubtfully. "But I know him and he's most definitely a kid," He said, looking at Gully.

Gully made an indignant noise and started huffing, but Mia interrupted his beginnings of his hissy fit to point at a small table in the corner of the room that, amazingly, looked unoccupied.

"Let's just go over there," she said to Groose.

"Alright!" Groose thumped his mug down once they were seated and someone had randomly dropped off various dishes of various stuff. "Start talkin'!"

"Huh?" Mis asked, distracted by the table beside them...which seemed to be having a eat-as-much-pie-as-you-can-before-you-barf contest. "Eww."

"Where're you from?" Groose leaned slightly forward over the table. "Why do you have round ears?"

"I came from a land far far away. And my ears are round because, well," She self-consciously touched her ear, "I was born this way okay?"

"Hey! Mia!" Gully said, bouncing up and down in his chair and watching the purple berry-filled carnage beside them. "Can I go-"

"No!" Groose and Mia both answered.

"Aw..." Gully started whining, then perked up when Mia pushed her uneaten plate of pie at him.

Groose cleared his throat, loudly.

"Yes Groose? How may I help you?" Mia clasped her hands together on the table in front of her, assuming a boardly serious expression.

"What's up with Link, why won't anyone tell me nothin' about anythin, where did you go two days ago, and why did Link come back all bloody?"

"How did you know he was all bloody?" She looked at him suspiciously.

"Uh, I was spying on you, duh!" Groose snorted.

"Well, duh!" She retorted, grabbing one of the mugs at random and angrily taking a swig.

"Duh!" Gully added through a mouth full of pie.

Groose groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

"What was I just talking about?" Mia asked a few moments later, looking into her now nearly empty cup with puzzlement.

Groose dropped his hands. "Link being bloody! Why you fell on my head!"

"Oh. Right. See, there was this forest and these fuzzy kiwi things that Link wouldn't let me keep, even though they were totally adorable." She grinned strangely, a slightly glazed over look coming over her eyes as she continued talking. "And then that _obnoxious_ demon guy licked my ear, but before that, he hit Link with his sword and didn't even stop to apologize."

"Uh...huh?" Groose was confused. "Wait, wait, what? What's a forest?"

"...Hmmm? I dunno," she sighed. "Green?" She giggled. "Oh, and after the demon left, Fi sprayed water all over us, and it was cold! And we almost got hit by this giant brick," she said, holding her arms way out to show him just how giant it was.

Groose looked suspiciously at the mug she was holding.

"Hey Mia!" Gully pulled on her dress sleeve.

"Hmm...?" Mia blinked at him as if she had just realized he was sitting beside her. "Yes small adorable child with pie on his face?"

"Um..." Gully glanced at Groose, who was just as confused as he was and shrugged. Then Mia clunked her mug on the table and it wobbled dangerously. Groose grabbed it before the last few remaining inches of liquid could slosh out. "There's a balcony over there!" Gully said, grabbing Mia by the arm and pulling her from her chair.

"Well, okay," she said agreeably, wobbling a bit unsteadily on her feet. Groose watched them weave through the crowd and start climbing the stairs that led to the small balcony which also held a few tables and chairs. As soon as they were gone, he grabbed Mia's cup and peered into it, wrinkling his nose at the strong fumes. He blinked. And then jumped up, accidentally knocking over his chair in his haste to grab Mia, grab Gully, and get out of there before something happened. Pushing past annoyed patrons, he ran up the stairs with strides that ate up the distance between him and Gully and Mia, who he saw were twirling and spinning around the room.

"Hey! Pipsqueak!" Groose stomped up to them.

"Whaugh!" Startled, Mia tripped over her feet and along with Gully, went crashing into the wall. The chandelier hanging overhead wobbled dangerously, and Groose watched in horror as the pegs holding it to the ceiling loosened and one by one fell, bouncing as they hit the floor. There was a dreadfully loud creaking noise, and everyone on that floor and the one below turned and stared as the heavy chandelier began to sway.

"Eeeek!

"Ahhh!"

Anyone sitting at the tables jumped up and ran for the stairs as the heavy metal chandelier came crashing down, breaking through several wooden floor boards before coming to a twisted, tragic stop.

There was silence. Silence that didn't last for long, and soon became filled with confused and angry shouts. Groose stepped over the thick chandelier chain and rushed over to where he had last seen Mia and Gully, finding them huddling together against the wall, perfectly alright, if not dazed.

"What..what happened?" Gully asked, his eyes wide.

"Uhh..." Mia groaned, coughing as as cloud of plaster and dust descended from the ceiling.

"Pipsqueak!" Groose groaned. "What have you done?!"

"Uh-oh," Mia muttered.

"Hey-!" Groose protested as she grabbed Gully by the arm, hauling him to his feet. Her dress fluttered out behind her and their boots clumped loudly on the floor as they both ran towards a small door to the side, pausing only to scoop up the rupees and heart container that had fallen along with the chandelier.

"GROOSE!" A loud voice came from behind him, and Groose winced, turning to see the bartender staring in horror at the carnage. He blinked and blinked, and dropped his mug; it clunked heavily on the floor. "MY CHANDELIER!" He cried in horror. "GROOSE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"Uh! I didn't do nothin'!" Groose protested. "It was-"

"YOU-!" The bartender's face turned purple and he stormed up to Groose, "YOU DON'T DARE TRY AND PIN THIS ON ANYONE ELSE. I SAW YOU GO RUNNING UP HERE JUST BEFORE THAT CHANDELIER FELL!" He pointed one furious finger in Groose's face. Groose backed away until his back hit the wall and he could go no further.

"I-" Groose tried to say.

"You will PAY for what you've done, you hear me?"

"I-" Groose tried to say again.

"Or I'll see to it that Gaepora finds out about this!"

That was all Groose needed right now. If Gaepora found out about this, he'd be expelled for sure. And _still_ probably have to train Mia.

"Alright, alright!" He growled, his hands clenching into fists at his side.

"Wonderful," The bartender leaned back. "I think weeding the pumpkin patches for a month should suffice."

Groose's jaw all but dropped.

"What?" He exclaimed. The pumpkin patches took up almost the whole island, occupying almost every possible inch of available space.

"You got a problem?" The bartender growled.

"No," Groose muttered.

.+.

"PIPSQUEAK! GULLY!" Groose bellowed into the dark after successfully escaping the soup house, shackled with a four week obligation of weeding pumpkins.

He found Mia wandering around beside the pumpkin patches. "Gully's gone," she said in confusion.

"What? Whattya mean 'he's gone'?" Groose demanded, grabbing her shoulder before she could walk off the edge of the island.

She giggled. "His parents came and picked him up. They just left, see?" She pointed in the general direction of a receding pinpoint of light heading towards Skyloft. "They were really mad. Poor kid!"

"Poor kid? Poor kid!?" Groose exploded. "That 'poor kid' along with yourself, got me in tons of trouble! You and your crazy antics! Now I have t' weed the stinking pumpkin patches for a whole month!"

"Groose, Groose my friend," she grinned crazily, wobbling a bit. "C-calm down. I'll...I'll help you with the weeding, whenever I'm around,"

"..."

"Oh my gosh!" She suddenly yelped. "It's dark out! How're we gonna get back to Skyloft?"

"Uh..." Groose looked around.

Nearby, a Loftwing squawked as its rider, a graduate at the Knight Academy from the looks of it, started climbing on its back.

.+.

"I don't like demons," Mia informed him after he successfully bribed the senior for a ride. The darkness sped past them, the wind pulling at their hair. "Actually, I never liked demons." She tried to explain, sounding rather confused.

"..."

"And tongues," she added. "Tongues are rather creepy, don't you think?"

"Ah, uh-huh, I guess." Groose muttered as they landed in front of the academy.

"Hey, thanks man," she waved to the guy who had dropped them off.

...

"Groose?" She paused at the door of Zelda's room once they had both successfully made it inside the academy without alerting anyone to their presence.

"What?" He scowled.

"How does this open?"

With a sigh, Groose clumped over and turned the door knob for her.

"Oh." She grinned before heading into Zelda's room, almost walking into the wall. "S-see you tomorrow!"

"..."

.+.

"Okay. Today I will teach you how to survive difficult situations concerning...Loftwings." Groose called down to Mia, from where he was circling the academy on his black Loftwing that had a tuft of feathers on its head resembling Groose's own spectacular pompadour.

Groose was in a considerably better mood than he had been last night, as he had gone and talked to Gaepora earlier this morning, telling him all about the chandelier incident and his four-week debt. Surprisingly, Gaepora believed him when he said it was Mia and Gully who did it, and not him, and assured Groose that it would be Mia and Gully who would be weeding the pumpkins and not him. So now Groose could spend the rest of the day, until Link was ready to leave, because he had apparently recovered enough, teaching Mia more survival stuff. Emphasis on survival. Payback time.

"What?" Mia stood, back in her normal clothes and shoeless on the doorstep of the academy, squinting up at him and rubbing her eyes."What is it with you and waking up freakishly early?"

"S' not that dark out," He muttered, landing a few feet in front of her.

"But it's still flipping early."

Groose sighed. "Get on." He said, gesturing behind himself with his thumb.

"What?"

"Get on." Groose repeated impatiently.

"...I don't think so. I...think I drank too much soup." She moaned. "I have a killer headache, man."

"That wasn't soup, pipsqueak."

"Whatever," She turned. "I'm going back inside."

Glaring the entire time, Groose and his Loftwing rose into the air again, circling the area before tilting forward in a steep dive. Groose reached out with one hand and grabbed Mia by the arm as he passed by.

"Groose! What are you doing?" She yelped as her feet left the ground. She kicked her legs angrily as they rose a bit higher in the sky. "Put me down, RIGHT now!"

"Hmph." He pressed his heels into the Loftwing's side, which happened to be the command for...rise. Like heck. Within seconds they were shooting away from Skyloft, impossibly fast. The wind howled in Groose's ears and ruffled the feathers on his Loftwing's head, making them look a lot like fish scales.

"Aiiiiiiieee!" Mia shrieked, clutching at his arm. Groose leaned into a wide turn, using the momentum to pull her up and sit her down in front of him. She was quick to bury her face in the Loftwing's feathers while holding onto Groose's arm for dear life.

"Let go of me!" He said, shaking his arm as much as he dared.

"Groose, take me back RIGHT now!" She demanded, tears streaking down her cheeks from the wind.

"Uh, no. How else are you gonna get learn what t' do if you're in a situation where Link suddenly has to start pulling crazy moves like this?" He grinned, then pulled both rein things sharply, sending them into a downward spiral.

"No, Groose, what are you- Ahhhhhh!" She shrieked as they came out of their deathly dive and began rising again.

Groose waitied until they were quite high above the cloud barrier before giving her a good shove. "Oops! You fell off!" He cried, waiting for her shriek to be carried away by the wind before diving after her. "Pipsqueak!" Groose caught up and fought against the wind tearing at his clothes, his hair, his face. "Rule number one about falling off a Loftwing. Don't fall off a Loftwing."

"And if you're intentionally dropped off of one?" She wailed, her eyes squeezed shut. Her hair was tied back, so it wasn't in her face this time, and Groose saw that she looked like she was going to be sick.

"Rule number two about falling off a Loftwing," Groose maneuvered his bird closer, within arms reach of the terrified...not-Skyloftian. "You don't close your eyes, you don't freak out like a baby, and you don't look down. You keep looking up, t' see if whatever Loftwing you fell off is comin' back t' get you." He reached out and grasped her by the arm again, earning another irritating shriek as they went climbing upwards again barely after Mia had managed to grab the harness in a panic.

"Groose, if you don't get us back to solid ground RIGHT NOW, so help me, I will-"

Groose pushed her off again.

"Eeeeeeeee!"

"Pipsqueak!" He shouted in annoyance, after diving after her again. "Your eyes are closed, you're freaking out like a baby, an' you're not lookin' up. Did you not learn nothing th' first time?"

"Is it seriously that hard to call me by my real name?" She managed to glare at him, seeming slightly less confident that he wasn't trying to kill her.

"I'm not trying t' kill you," Groose said, in answer to what he thought she was thinking. "Just," He grinned, "Scare you a little."

Apparently Mia had decided she had had enough of being dropped, because when Groose saved her, a mere hundred feet from the thick cloud barrier, she latched onto his neck in a death grip, making it quite hard to steer. He still managed to direct his Loftwing in a series of stomach-turning loops and spins instead, swooping all over the sky and shouting unhelpful instructions to the un-Skyloftian attached to his back like some sort of parasitic leech.

"Now when you're with _Link_," Groose felt his face screw up in disgust. "Well, he's such a shrimp, that I'd hold ont' th' Loftwing more than I'd hold on to him."

"...Uhnn..."

They landed on a small island with a single scraggly tree on it, some grass, and not much else. The moment they touched down, Mia staggered off of the Loftwing, fell on her stomach, hung her head over the edge and retched.

"You...you owe me a new stomach," She said shakily afterwards, wiping a hand across her mouth while Groose looked on with a mixture of disgust and uncharacteristic concern.

"Consider this payback." He said, breathing heavily.

"Payback? For what?" She demanded, scooting backwards towards him and as far away from the edge as she could.

"Hmm, I dunno. For messing up my hair? For pushing me into th' river? For breaking a chandelier an' pinning the blame on me?"

"Just because of that stuff, you drag me outside and-! I...am going to kill you!"

Groose watched apathetically as she began to throw tiny punches at his arm. "Pipsqueak," he said boredly after a moment.

She didn't let up, the look of annoyed determination on her face stayed the same.

"Pipsqueak, stop." Groose pushed her face away. "Thumb on th' outside of your hand, remember?"

"Argh!" She pried his hand off of her face. "You are so irritating!"

"Hmph!" He scowled.

"Hmph yourself." She scooted away a bit and half-turned away, apparently deciding that she wasn't talking to him any more.

Which was fine with him.

The sky began to lighten further; golden rays streaming over the horizon and shooting into the clouds. Groose blinked. A pillar of light had began to materialize in front of the rising sun, seeming almost transparent at first, but growing more solid-looking with each second.

"Wha...what is that?" Groose stared, noticing as he did, that it was similar in every way to the weird green pillar except for its vivid red color.

Mia looked up, and Groose thought he saw a faint flicker of a perfectly normal smile before it was gone and replaced by her usual impish smirk.

"Well. It seems as if Link managed to remember the secret entrance in the goddess statue, despite his bishie-ness," Was the only information she offered.

"Link?" Secret entrance? Bishie-ness? What?

"Yeah, Link," She said, apparently forgetting that she apparently had decided she wasn't talking to him. "That beacon there," she nodded to the light streaming upwards and disappearing into nothing, "Means that I'll probably be going back to the surface soon, and you've barely taught me anything useful."

"If you didn't learn anything useful, then you clearly weren't listenin' t' anything I said." Groose snorted.

"Well fists probably aren't really enough to defend myself, you know," Mia said, reaching down and idly beginning to pick the few small flowers around her feet.

"I know, an' that's why I brought this." Groose reached into his belt and pulled out a smallish dagger and sheath he had stashed there earlier that morning before he had pounded on Mia's door and telling her to meet him outside.

"Ooo, goody. A potato peeler."

"It's a DAGGER. And this," Groose gestured to the blade, "Is the blade. Say it."

"Excuse me?" Mia stared at him.

"I'm the instructor, an' you're the student, now say it." Groose hardened his voice, but in reality, he was doing everything not to chuckle at the expression on her face.

"UHM, A BLADE?" Mia said, giving him a 'doi, this is stupid' look.

"Good! Now, this," Groose gestured to the hilt, "is the-"

"Ugh, would ya just show me how to use the bloody dagger already?"

"Okay, fine. This, you do when someone's commin' atcha," Groose thrust forward, twisting the dagger violently as he did so; a motion that made Mia wince. "And this is what you do when you're trying to kill whatever's commin' atcha," Groose repeated the motion he had just executed.

"...That's it? How is that useful?" She scowled.

Annoyed, Groose pushed the dagger back into its sheath and shoved it at her.

"Oh, hay! Easy with the pointy potato peeler!" She yelped, even though it was clearly sheathed.

And so Groose taught her useful stuff, like he had been planning to all along. He taught her how to light a fire using just her dagger and a lump of a strange stone called flint, that he had swiped from one of the classrooms at the academy. It was dark, and heavy, and produced sparks when properly struck. Groose didn't know how much use Mia would have for these particular skills, but Instructor Horwell had taught him. So he taught them to her.

He showed her from a book he had snagged from Instructor Horwell, the pictures of potentially dangerous plants supposedly found on the surface, and a few that were edible too. She seemed more fascinated with the words then the pictures though, running her fingers over the fancy letters, peering at the text with her nose almost touching the book.

"This Hylian?" She mumbled.

"What?" Groose asked, peering at her strangely. Hylian?

She sighed after a moment, closing the book and handing it back to him. "Figures. I go out of my way to learn Japanese. And then I get sucked into a Japanese video game. Where no one reads or writes Japanese, no, instead they read and write Hylian."

"...Whaaa?"Japanese? Video game? What?

"Never mind." She sighed, brining her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. "Carry on with your epic survival teachings."

"..."

He taught her how to dress a wound with the bandages he had snuck from the infirmary and how to slow bleeding; taught her just the right amount of pressure to apply to the wound, depending on the size and location. He showed her how to hide her weapon in the palm of her hand or up her sleeve; how to whip it out for an effective, unexpected sneak attack. And he tried to show her how to deal with fear.

"Don't try an' push your fear away," he said. "You can't make it leave you alone, but you can do what you have to do, in spite of it. An' if you fight it, you make it stronger. So don't fight it."

"Oh," She said, sitting very still and strangely, seeming to pay attention.

The sun had climbed rather high into the sky by the time Groose got to the last 'useful' thing he wanted to teach Mia before she had to go...wherever it was she was going with Link.

"...So, if you're pulling someone up somethin', or stoppin' them from fallin' off a cliff, you hold onto them like so" He said, reaching out and wrapping his fingers around her wrist, right above her hand. "Then if they grab you back," he paused, waiting until he felt Mia grip his own arm, just barely managing to fully encircle his wrist. "There's no way you'll lose your grip and slip out of each other's grasp. Because their hand's in th' way." He finished, then tugged downwards slightly to demonstrate.

"Ow."

"It't especially useful if you're fallin' off of a Loftwing or somethin'," Groose cheerfully added.

"...You can take me back to Skyloft any time now."

"Oh yeah." Groose dropped her hand and began stuffing his saddle bags with the various apparatus he had brought. "We wouldn't want to keep _Link_ waiting."

"You didn't teach me how to use a sword," Mia said in disappointment as he shoved the book and flint and everything else back into the saddle bag type thing he had fastened to his Loftwing.

"Yeah, well, we'll get t' that," Groose climbed up on his bird.

"I hope you're better at sword-fighting than Link," she said, before picking up the small bunch of flowers she had picked earlier and accepting his grudgingly offered hand.

.+.

_Link_ happened to be sitting on his Loftwing, near the diving platform that they landed on.

"Link," Groose glared.

"Groose," Link acknowledged warily. He held up a pair of black boots and Mia's sword and sheath and said to her, "Ready?"

"Who made who wait for three days and you're asking me if I'm ready?"

"Uh, I was injured," Link rolled his eyes.

The realization that Mia went out of her way to be annoying to someone other than him made Groose's day just a little better. Because if Link was getting tormented...then that was good, right?

"I know. I was with you at the time, remember?" Mia said.

"Hay," Groose twisted himself around to look at her, suddenly suspicious that she hadn't gotten off his Loftwing at the earliest possible opportunity.

She looked back at him with innocent eyes.

"What?" She said angelically, her fingers twisting around the stem of a flower.

"Get off," Groose frowned.

"Gladly," she smirked, sliding down the side of his Loftwing and jumping to the ground.

Groose watched her take her boots from Link and pull them on...and then blinked when a flower fell in front of him, soft petals brushing his face. He looked up. Flowers most definitely do not fall from the sky...do they? He frowned, puzzling this oddity, when he was distracted by someone calling,

"Hey, Groose!" It was Pipit, leaving his house and pulling the front door closed behind him. "Nice hair!" He lifted one arm in a wave, his eyes twinkling merrily.

"Uh..."

"Groose!" It was Cawlin this time, running down the path from the academy, Stritch right behind him. "You're..." He trailed off and stopped short, causing Stritch to bump into him. "Whoa," he managed to choak out, a huge smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Pffft!" Stritch's face turned bright red and he clasped both hand over his mouth in an effort to restrain the laughter clearly threatening to burst right out of him.

Confused, and annoyed, Groose reached up, ran his hand along his Pompadour...and to his absolute horror, discovered that there were...flowers in his hair. Mia had woven flowers into his beautiful hair.

"Ahh!" He cried in horror, pulling at his head. More flowers fluttered to the ground, but nowhere near all of them from the feel of things.

Laughter erupted from everyone in the area, filling his ears. Humiliated, he struggled to unwind the flowers from his hair.

"Argh! SO not funny Pipsqueak!" He growled.

"I disagree. I find it hilarious, as everyone else does," Mia grinned, gesturing to the small crowd that had gathered, laughter bubbling up in everyone like a pot of boiling pumpkin soup.

"Ugh! When I'm through with you!" Groose bellowed murderously.

"Sorry Groose, but I'm afraid we simply must be going. Auf wiedersehen." She blew everyone a kiss before taking Link's extended hand and climbing up behind him on his Loftwing.

"Argh!" Groose watched uselessly as Link, with genuine fear in his eyes, quickly spurred his bird, quickly climbing just out of reach of Groose's fists.

"Cawlin! Stritch! Stop laughing and GET over here!" Groose ordered, tearing his gaze away from the escaping evil duo.

Smothering snickers behind hands pressed firmly against their red faces, Cawlin and Stritch hurried over and proceeded to try and help him get the stinking flowers out of his hair; no easy task with all that Chu-Chu hair gel.

"Hey, Groose?" Mia smiled down from the brilliant sky as Link's Loftwing circled the area once more. The sun, just behind her head, brought tears to Groose's eyes and blurred her features when he tried to look up at her.

"Whaaat?" He scowled, through flower petals drifting down in front of his eyes.

"See you tomorrow," She grinned.

With a few downbeats of powerful, efficient bird wings, they were soon a speck in the sky, flying towards the red pillar of light and leaving him angry, annoyed, and more confused then he had ever been.


	12. What The What?

**A/N: ****This chapter was partially brought to you by someone who is not  
Wingscutdarkness. If you have any complaints, direct yourself to the nearest place  
where voicing said complaints out loud would cause you the most embarrassment.**

**C****hapter 12: What the what!?**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\

As Link and I flew towards the distant red beam of light, towards Eldin Volcano, I decided that there was no reason to be worrying about...well, anything at the moment. For the sky was awesomely blue, the sun was shining, and I had just successfully sabotaged Groose's hair with flowers. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day.

"So how were your three days of doing nothing? Did ya improve your sword skills at least?"

Link shot me a semi-hostile look out of the corner of one narrowed eye.

"What?" I asked, sort of taken aback. Sort of, but not really.

He didn't answer, and instead directed us in a gentle turn around a huge chunk of random floating boulder that reminded me of some movie I'd seen long ago, a movie where the world was destroyed and all that was left were broken pieces of land. And a boy and his Luckdragon. And a child-like princess or something.

"You broke a chandelier," Link said finally.

I frowned. "...How did you find out about that?"

"Pipit told me. Apparently he was there, at the Lumpy Pumpkin, and saw you and Groose and Gully come in, and everything that happened after that."

I blushed. "Ah...really?"

"Yeah. And you know what else?" Link huffed. "Piper came and ranted to _me _about how I _let_ Gully go with you and Groose. As if I had anything to do with all that!"

"Psh." I crossed my arms. "If you actually _knew _how to use a sword, you wouldn't have gotten hurt, you could have stopped Ghirahim from licking my ear, _you_ could be training me instead of Groose, and none of this would have happened. So if you think about it...it's kind of your fault."

"My fault!?" Link exploded.

"Master Link," Fi interrupted. "We are nearing Eldin Volcano I suggest..."

I flinched suddenly as a buzzing sort of noise rang in my ears, drowning out the drone of Fi's emotionless voice. The wind suddenly began to smell less like wind and more like burnt plastic or something.

"-Oh good, it's working. Hi Mia, and all you readers."

I immediately ducked, pressing the side of my face against Link's back.

_...Why won't all you darn voices leave me alone already?_

"Who are you?!" I hissed.

"I'm Zzzp2.5. Wings couldn't think of a good way to get a certain character into the story, so I'm doing it."

"What?" I sat up, not bothering to disguise the bewilderment in my voice. "What are you _talking_ about?"

"I didn't say anything," Link turned to glare at me, his hat blowing up and fluttering in my face.

"Not you," I snapped as Link's voice blocked out the reply of whoever had been talking to me. I batted Link's hat away and strained my ears in case the mysterious voice decided to repeat itself. But it didn't, and all I could hear was the wind and my annoyed huff, and-

"Aaaaaaaaaahhh!"

...A frightened scream, coming very suddenly out of nowhere. In front of me, Link stiffened. He had heard it too.

"There. See, Wings? Simple." The Zzzp2.5 voice said, sounding pretty darn satisfied with himself. "Mia, if you have any problems, complain to the readers. Bye!" There was another wierd electronic sound, and again, the air smelt faintly like burnt plastic for a few seconds.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes. "Hey! Wait-" Another scream, sounding considerably closer this time, cut me off.

"Mia," Link turned to face me, no longer glaring, one hand gripping the Loftwing's feathers."What-"

At that moment, something _slammed _into the side of the Loftwing, cutting off Link's words and knocking us both backwards and off of the bird.

"Eeeee!" I calmly shrieked upon finding myself suddenly free-falling through the sky. I heard Link give a startled yelp and saw a flash of his green tunic through my hair, which was now flying all in my face. "Ahh! AHHHH!"

"Mia!" Link shouted, and grabbed me by my hair.

"Ahh! Tesusaiga!" I swore, reaching up to slap at his hand. "Ow ow ow! Let go, you moron!"

"Mia!" Link grunted in annoyance. "Stop moving around!" He grabbed my arm with his other hand, and let go of my hair to fumble around in his belt, presumably for the sailcloth.

"Ah!" I felt something grab me by my leg. "Ahh! AHH!" I shrieked and struggled, uselessly, to see through my tangled curtain of hair.

"What? What?" Link shouted at me, his tunic flapping around, his chain mail clanking, and his hat almost flying off his head.

"Ahh! AHH!" I repeated and screwed my eyes shut as a particularly strong gust of wind drove us even closer to the cloud barrier. I heard a gasp that I assumed was from Link. And then a prepubescent voice that definitely did not come from Link.

"Oh my gosh, Mia?"

My eyes flew open, I looked down, and my gaze met with that of a boy. A familiar, blonde boy, clothed in fluorescent green and clinging to my leg.

Holy hell. Holy. Hell.

"What? Y-you? B-but-Link?!" I managed to choke out as we began to fall through the first of the Dreamworks-like clouds making up the cloud barrier. "Spirit Tracks Link!?"

There then came a noise which sounded suspiciously like a fangirl squeal.

* * *

**A/N: Omg. O_o**


	13. Lava Pits

**Chapter 13: Lava pits**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Link  
/\/\/\/\/\

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Mia shrieked, pinwheeling through the sky a few feet below Link. "Ahh! AHH! Ow ow ow! Let go, you moron!" She scrabbled at his hand when he grabbed her by the hair.

"Stop moving around!" Link let go of her hair and grabbing her arm. He struggled to pull out his sailcloth and and spat several strands of her hair out of his mouth before finally managing to grab a fistful of the white cloth.

"Ah! Ahh! AHH!"

Link grunted as Mia jerked downwards.

"What-! What the-! What did you do?!" He shouted at her as they were suddenly descending at a considerably faster rate.

"Master Link!" Fi spoke urgently. "It appears as though you will reach the Surface in mere seconds. I strongly suggest utilizing your sailcloth at this time, as a drop from this height will probably inflict great harm."

"Ahh! AHH! S-Spirit Tracks Link?!" Mia screeched.

"What?" Link's gaze flickered downwards, and then he did a double take, startled. There was a kid holding onto her leg.

_There was a kid holding onto her leg._

_THERE WAS A KID HOLDING ONTO HER FREAKING LEG. _

Link stared, all but frozen in shock despite the immediate danger.

_What the...!?_

Mia appeared to be just as shocked as he felt and gaped at the small boy, whose frightened blue-eyed gaze shifted from Link to her, and then back to Link again. Link narrowed his eyes, but had no time to wonder about anything because there was a sudden and thick haze before his eyes, a chilly dampness on his skin, and water droplets hitting his cheek. They were falling through the clouds.

"Link! Do something!" Mia wailed, and gripped him around the waist in a panic.

"Hah!" Link felt his heart almost leap out of his chest as the wind nearly snatched his sailcloth out of his hand. He immediately let go of Mia without a second thought, disregarding her surprised and somewhat indignant yelp and grabbing the fabric billowing over his head with both hands. Luckily for her, Mia managed to grab his belt with her now free hand.

The wind immediately caught and lifted them, slowing their descent. But not by enough, Link realized as something red and rocky appeared through the thinning clouds. Not good. He gritted his teeth as they hit the ground hard, a landing that jolted deep inside of him and sent up showers of dirt, and gravel, and sharp pebbles that dug into Link's skin. Then they hit what felt like a large rock and he somehow got flipped over; his face scraping along the ground for a few seconds before he finally slowed to a stop.

Slightly stunned, he lay there for a few seconds, his head hurting. Forget his head; his whole body ached as if...as if they had just fallen onto hard, rocky ground from a ridiculous hight.

Becoming aware of a strange searing heat warming his left side, he slowly pushed himself up on shaky arms, spat gravel out of his mouth, and blinked in the glow of a pit of fiery orange oozy stuff about three feet away. Alarmed, he scooted backwards slightly.

"Master Link." Fi said from his sword. "It appears as, though several miles away from our designated landing site, we have arrived at Eldin Volcano. I suggest utilizing your browsing ability to continue your search for Zelda."

"Uhng..." Link groaned in reply. His face hurt, and he brought his hand up, wincing at the scrapes and scratches that stung as he fingered the tender skin on his cheek. He shifted into a sitting position and turned to look up at the hazy sky, amazed that his arms or legs hadn't been broken from a fall like that.

"Uh..." He heard Mia groan from where she was lying on her side, a few feet away. "Link..." She muttered, then coughed into the arm of her dust-covered sweater. "Link...you...you idiot...!"

Link narrowed his eyes. "If this is how you're going to react when I just barely manage to save your life, remind me not to bother next time."

"Psh." She glared at him, and shifted painfully onto her back, sort of glaring and wincing up at the sky at the same time.

A splash of bright green fabric behind her, and looking totally out-of-place among the red, rocky earth and the orange pits of fire, suddenly caught Link's attention. He blinked, then stumbled to his feet and staggered over, angrily grabbing a fistful that weirdly brightly-colored tunic and pulling its owner upright. "Hey kid!" Link shook him, and his eyes flew open.

"What! Where am I? What just happened!?" He looked around, longish hair falling into shocked eyes. His pale face was streaked with red rock dust. "Where's my train?"

"Oh my god."Mia scrambled to her feet, her eyes wide as she stared at the kid with a horrified expression.

The boy in Link's grasp struggled, trying to get out of Link's grip.

"You...you know each other?" Link looked back and forth between the both of them.

Mia didn't answer at first. "I...I..." She stuttered, her face pale. Then her head snapped up suddenly. "Those voices have gone WAY too far this time."

"What..." The boy watched her turn abruptly and storm a little ways away, a dark look spreading over her face. Then his gaze snapped forwards as Link shook him again.

"Who are you?" Link demanded.

"Ah! Let go of me!"

"Not until you tell me just what you think you are doing, slamming into my Loftwing like that! Do you realize you could have killed us?"

"Hey! Wingswhatever!" Mia was shouting. "Wings! I know you are there! WINGS!"

"What if I hadn't had my sailcloth? What if we had fallen into that...that fiery orange oozy stuff?" Link continued, ignoring Mia. "What's your name? Where are you from?" He demanded angrily.

"Aha!" Mia said triumphantly, apparently getting some response. "I _knew _it! What is _wrong _with you? What were you _thinking_?!"

"S-stop it already...!" The boy said dizzily, his eyelids fluttering. Realizing that he soon might pass out, Link stopped shaking him. "Ah..." He slumped down a bit in Link's grip. "Ow..."

"Start talking!" Link shook him again.

"Ah! Okay! My name is Link," The boy said grouchily. "And I have no idea what just happened. A few minutes ago, I was driving my train, and the next, I was falling through the sky!" He looked over Link's shoulder at Mia. "Is this...Mia's world? And...wait, what is she doing?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean? You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about!" Mia's agitated voice cranked up a few agitated notches in volume. She paused. "I don't _care _that you're sick, and no, I will not leave you alone until you tell me exactly why Link from Spirit Tracks is suddenly in Skyward Sword world."

"Wait a second." Link blinked, feeling his grip on the boy's arms loosen. "Your name is...Link?"

"Yeah." The boy muttered, then looked at him out of the corner of his eye, through blonde bangs that looked...a lot like Link's own. "Why? What's your name?"

"...Link."

The boy was silent for a moment.

"No. Really."

"Link." Link repeated.

The boy turned to look at him with both eyes now.

"...Really?" He said skeptically.

"Um. Yeah. Really."

"...Naw."

"Um..._yeah_."

"You have no idea? What do you mean you have no idea?" Mia shouted, sounding more and more exasperated. "Do something! Fix this somehow! Having Spirit Tracks Link here is _not _a good idea! There's lava pits! There's Ghirahim! And just how are we all going to get back to Skyloft!?"

There was silence for a moment. And then a faint flapping sort of noise.  
All three of them looked upwards and curiously watched as a bunch of white fabric, a sailcloth not unlike Link's own, began decending out of the sky.


	14. TWO Links?

**Chapter 14: TWO Links...?**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\

Both Links and I silently watched as a sailcloth floated down out of the sky and landed in front of my feet.

"...You know...when I said 'do something', I meant take Link back to his own world. Or time. Or whatever." I said.

"Uhh...I'm...too sick to put up with complaints about breaking the fourth wall to do something like that." The author voice coughed. "It's bad enough that all the readers voted Spirit Tracks Link into the story. Do you know how much author power it takes to do something like that? Or rather...convincing someone else to do something like that?"

I looked over at Spirit Tracks Link. He stared back, his huge eyes still black like they had been in Spirit Tracks. I narrowed my eyes, suddenly noticing how out of place he looked compared to everyone else. The color of his tunic was freakishly...bright, and something..._else_ looked slightly off. My eye twitched.

"But he obviously doesn't belong here! Look at him!" I half-turned away to point out to the voice. "He's still...cel-shaded or whatever."

"...Oops. My bad. Uh...hang on a second." Wings said.

"M-Mia?" Toon Link was trying to get away from Link, who was half-sitting on his legs and grasping fistfuls of his tunic in both hands almost as if he was going to strangle the kid. "Mia, where...where are we? And why does everything look so weird?"

"We're...um." I cleared my throat. "We're..." I trailed off as...an inexplicable grey floating box with the word 'loading...' on it appeared in the air over Spirit Tracks Link's head. And then his cel-shading just...dissapeared. It was kind of freaky actually. One minute, he was all cartoonish, and the next...he looked almost exactly like a younger version of Link.

All three of us jolted a bit.

"Ahh!" Toon Link yelped.

"Ahh!" Link let go of him and recoiled in shock.

"...There." Wings said. "Happy now? Yes? Good. I'm going to bed."

"Wait!" I spun around, staring up at the sky. At least...that's where it seemed like her voice was coming from. "What about-"

"Mia!" Link interrupted, his feet skidding on the loose, rocky dirt as he stormed up to me. "Who is that!?" He pointed at Toon Link...who, wasn't all that toonish anymore. "Where did he come from!? Why is he here?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Does he have something to do with all those...voices you keep talking to whenever you think I'm not listening?"

"Haha...um...maybe?" I mumbled, avoiding eye contact. Link snorted, not looking too happy with this response. He was about to say something else, but was interrupted by an ahh.

"Ahh!"

We both looked over at Toon Link.

"Ahh! Ahh! Mold!" He was squealing, kicking his legs and throwing up clouds of red dust while pawing frantically at his now shaded clothes. I inched carefully away from Link and towards Toon Link.

"Hey. Hey, calm down!" I told him, then squinted down at his tunic in the hot, hazy light. "It's not mold. It's...um...not-cel-shading?"

Toon Link and Link were both silent.

"Uhh...what? It's not mold?" Toon Link finally said, pushing himself off of the ground. He was practically covered in red dirt that showed the most on his previously white leggings.

"...Cel-shading?" The word sounded strange coming from Link's mouth.

"Technically, it's called shading. Or airbrushed shading. Or realistic rendering or something like that." Wings chimed in. "Or so I've been told."

...

"No Link. It's not mold, it's actually...shading. Or something. And it's perfectly normal for video games such as these." I said, glaring mentally at the voice because I couldn't...exactly see...her. "See how you now look like the...other Link?" I looked between the two Links.

Toon Link did look remarkably like Skyward Sword Link, complete with the ridiculously blue eyes. A young Skyward Link. A mini Link.

_Mini-Skychild..._

Ghirahim's creepy voice floated through my head then for some reason. I shuddered and tried to ignore the unwelcome thoughts of the sparkly demon lord that were suddenly surfacing from...wherever my most unpleasant thoughts were stored.

"It's just...well, it has a lot to do with where you...are right now...I guess." I finished lamely, staring at Toon Link and biting my bottom lip as I wondered just how I was going to explain him to everyone in Skyloft.

"Oh. I'm...not in my world anymore? Where are we then? Is this your world? And is his name really Link too?" Toon Link asked, blinking rapidly at me before turning to stare at our surroundings. After a moment, I turned and looked too, mainly up at the huge, barren mountain that was Eldin Volcano.

It towered a little ways away from us, rising high into the sky, thin wisps of white haze hanging over top of the crater. Streams of lava glowed hotly as they flowed down the mountain. I squinted and just managed to make out the entrance to the temple, a good hike up the mountainside. The next place we were to go chasing after Zelda. Yay.

Dead trees littered the area we had landed in, and the only living vegetation I could see were the few scraggly weeds pushing out of cracks in the dry ground. The air was thick and hot, and pits of glowing yellowish-orange lava bubbled dangerously along the path that led towards the volcano.

"...No, you're not in your world anymore," I hesitated, very aware of Link's scrutinizing glare on my back as he no doubt listened closely to every word I said. Frankly, I was surprised he managed to survive this long without exploding from the lack of answers I had provided to the millions of questions he probably had by now. "This isn't my world either. We're...in a place called...er..."

It was at that moment that Fi decided to interrupt me with another one of her 'Master' comments, though for once, I wasn't resentful.

"Master, I detect Zelda's presence somewhere in the area." She said, floating out of Link's sword and into the air. The light from the nearby lava pits gleamed strangely off of her skin and hair, making her look all metallic. "I calculate a 83.2% possibility that Zelda will be heading towards the Earth Spring. Please use your dowsing ability to follow her."

"Ahh!" Toon Link jumped backwards. "O-oh my goddesses! There's..there's an armourless phantom in your sword!" He yelped, looking completely freaked out.

Link narrowed his eyes. "Your 'armourless phantom'... is actually a servant of the goddess. And she probably has some sort of goddess powers that she could use on kids like you who should go home before you cause any more trouble."

"Wha...but...I don't know how to get home." Toon Link peered up at me. "Where are we anyways Mia?"

"I...I don't know how you are supposed to get home. Maybe...maybe the same way I am?" I suggested doubtfully, purposely ignoring his question, which I didn't exactly have an answer for.

"The same way as you? And how is that?" Link suddenly demanded.

Behind him, Fi did a gentle back flip and disappeared back into his sword, a few blue sparkles lingering behind her.

"How is that, Mia?" Link glared hotly at me. "If you think I'm about to take this...this..._random_ kid with us, who would only slow us down while we're trying to find Zelda... then...well..." He looked at the both of us, then up at the sky. "Then you're insane!"

He panted a bit, apparently spent, and watched me warily as I walked up to him, close enough that I could see tiny wisps of hair sticking to his ears and neck from the humidity.

"Stop being crazy!" I punched his shoulder and drew myself up to full height and tried to ignore the fact that he was still taller than me by a few good inches. "In case you forgot, I _have _to come with, because if I don't help you...there's a good chance that I'll be stuck in your world forever, remember!? I'm pretty sure that you want that about as much as I do." I rolled my eyes. "And him," I gestured back to Toon Link, "Well...I don't care that he fell out of the sky and almost killed the both of us and I don't care that you don't want to take him with you. I'm not going to leave him all alone in a strange place with volcanoes and monsters and demon lords and freaking lava pits! So there!"

Something dangerous flickered in Link's eyes, and I hurriedly stepped backwards as he reached behind himself...and slowly pulled out his sword.  
For a second, I really thought that he was going to hit me back, or push me into the nearest lava pit, or at least take out his frustration on Toon Link. But then his sword started pulsing faintly with the blue dowsing light, and he glanced at it, then turned and stalked away from us without a word. I felt my muscles un-tense, and a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding escaped with a _whoosh._

Toon Link, who had remained silent throughout our...argument thing, shuffled his feet awkwardly. I looked at him, then over at Eldin Volcano, then back at him again. He nodded uncertainly in answer to my unspoken question, and after a moment, we started walking down a faint path worn into the dirt, towards the volcano. Keeping a reasonable distance behind Link of course.

"So...um...Mia?" Toon Link cleared his throat and spoke, just as I was thinking about how much I wished Groose was there so that I could take my ranty mood out on someone.

"Yes?" I said warily and half-turned to see him holding out to me the sailcloth that had fallen out of the sky. I slowed down a bit and took the white fabric from him, absent-mindedly folding and shoving it underneath the sword sheath strapped to my back.

"Just what _is_ going on here?"

I sweat-dropped.


	15. Tooned In

**A/N: ...This chapter I didn't write! And no, not because I was too busy playing the Last Story... ^^;  
****Chapter written by Zzzp2.**

**Chapter 15: Tooned In**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Toon Link  
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

_'This entire place is just weird.'_ Toon Link thought, looking around. A very large smoking volcano loomed in the distance, with lava flowing down it. Around him were a few paths, and rocks formed walls around this lava-covered area.  
_'There's red things in the sky, they have huge volcanoes... and they domesticated phantoms... although it IS a little weird that it's a girl... I always thought that the phantoms didn't have a gender. Actually, I haven't thought of that at all. Why is that?'_

"Link!" interrupted Mia, causing the other Link to turn around for a second. "Stop daydreaming and come on!"

_'I don't daydream!'_ Toon Link thought, rushing over to join them on a little outcropping of rock right above some lava. The lava flow from the volcano was obscured by a wall, but Toon Link was pretty sure it led to the lava right there. _'Or is it? Are there separate lava flow-'_ Toon Link's walking was interrupted by something gooey, causing him to fall.

"Whaa! Owww..."

The other Link just sighed, took out his sword, and slashed at whatever Toon Link just tripped on, causing a weird music note to play.

_'That's new...'_ Toon Link thought, lying on the ground. _'Usually it's just music. But nobody else ever hears it! I wonder if Mia hears it. Or the other Link.'_  
His throbbing leg objected as he stood up, but the objection was overruled. Toon Link turned around, and saw a red chuchu-like creature with a mouth. Or two- No wait, that one he killed turned into two more?  
Toon Link unsheathed his sword, ran over, and swung at one of the littler ones, which died instantly, and the other Link took care of the others.

"See? He's already slowing us down."

"Hey!"

The other Link turned away and started walking. Toon Link sighed and followed the other Link down the path. He seemed to be holding his sword out, which was pulsing occasionally when he pointed it at something.

_'That's kind of interesting, actually... how does it do that? Did he fit a compass in there? No, that would just find magnetic things. Maybe he used those plans that Niko has and got that transistor thing working. That's weird, I thought it would never work. Everyone knows that everything's imbued with the Goddess's energy, and it would take a huge amount of stuff to get that flowing.'_

The other Link's sword seemed to be leading him down to a few rocks floating on a lava pit, so Toon Link followed Link, who was jumping over them.

"Hey, Mia?"

"Yes?"

"Why is there mold in the lava?"

Mia hopped onto the first rock, turned around and did a sweeping motion with her arms. "Because that's how this world is?"

"...okay."

It was kind of hot near the lava, so when they got to the other side Link was kind of glad it was over. Until clouds of dust started being thrown out of the ground, and two yellow things popped out.

"Ah!" Toon Link unsheathed his sword.

"Hey! You mess with our turf, and you're gonna... pay?"

"Whoa! Yo, Ledd, These aren't those red creeps. They are around the same size, though, so I see why you might have thought. False alarm, dude!"

Toon Link lowered his sword. These... things had a weasel-like snout, and they spoke Hylian, so they were intelligent. And they had these two shovel-like arms, neither of which were attacking him at the moment.

"Y-y-yeah, you're right... Still, no reason to scare the hair off us, though!"

_'Not that you have much of it. Just a little on your head. How does that other one's mohawk stick up when digging?'_ Toon Link thought.

The one with the red hair, Ledd, leaned forward. "Sorry 'bout that, pals. These monsters showing up are messing with our turf, and it's got us all on edge. They show up here, and I'm gonna knock the red clean out of 'em! That's what I'm doing here."

"Yeah, and give them lead poisoning." Mia spoke up.

"Whatever, miss. Anyway, if y'all are looking for treasure, go ahead, but stay clear of those red guys."

Link walked past them, sword outstretched, and Toon Link and Mia followed him. The path hugged the rocky wall and led right into a cave... and some red monsters. Both Links made quick work of them, and walked into a cave with a path flanked by lava pools on either side. And what looked like flaming bats.

_'The mold got on the walls, too?'_ Toon Link gave an involuntary shudder. _'Ew. Shouldn't it be burning off in this heat? And- hey, what's that green thing?'_ Toon Link unsheathed his sword and ran up to what appeared to be a green fruit lying on the ground...

...And then lava geysers spouted, causing the lava to rise up and block the path out of the cave.

"Whoa!"

"Ugh. How did Zelda get into such a stupid place anyway?"

"Hey! Hey! Listen! Watch out!"

Link turned over to Mia. "Be quiet."

Mia ignored Link and cupped her hands around her mouth. "You saw the stamina fruit! Eat it to restore your stamina gauge!"

Toon Link pointed to the green bulb. "This?"

"What else looks like a fruit?"

Link looked down and inspected the moldy fruit. _'Moldy, like everything else in this place. I wonder if they're like hearts? Or is it a bomb flower? What would happen if I ate one anyway? Would it even fit in my mouth?'_ Toon Link resolved to try and eat a bomb flower once he got a few Heart Containers to lessen the impact. The green fruit was not a bomb flower, but Mia said it was good to eat, so...  
Toon Link took a bite.

...

...

...

Nothing happened!  
_'Okay then. It's probably going to be the only food here, so I guess I'll just eat it all.'_

...

...

Still, nothing happened!

Toon Link got up and went to join the others in a little cave with more of those yellow dudes in them!

"Huh? Never seen you around here before..." Toon Link heard one say as he caught up to them.

"Whoa! You must be a friend of those red creeps! ...Wait, are you?"

"Uh, no." answered Link.

"You're not, huh? Well you don't look like 'em, that's for su-"

"Hey, are those bomb flowers?! They're bigger then I remember," interrupted Toon Link, running over to a brown bulb covered in blue petals.

"Bomb what? Stay back!" Link ordered, but Toon Link was busy examining them.

"You don't know what bomb flowers are, dude? You're joking, right? They're those flowers over there. You pick one up, and it lights a fuse. Then... BOOM!"

**-BOOM-**

A scorched Toon Link saw everyone looking at him, and decided that now was a good time for a ten-second nap.

"Well... they're dangerous plants," continued the yellow guy. "But once you learn to use 'em, they're a great weapon. Us Mogmas are crazy about 'em! You can even roll 'em on the ground! See what you can do with those flowers and your friend over there."

Mia walked over to bomb flower.  
Link walked over to a bomb flower.  
Toon Link was on the ground, but he probably dreamed of walking or something.

Link heard a hissing noise, and turned to see Mia holding a smoking bomb flower.

"OHGODTHISWASN'TSUPPOSEDTOGOOFFAAAAAAH-"

"Mia! Throw it!"

Mia threw it at a particularly conspicuous hole filled with boulders in the wall, then ran at full speed to the other side of the room.

"Mia, that is an incredibly stupid-" Link began.

**-BOOM-**

When the smoke cleared, there was a hole in the wall, and a kid running past a bend and out of sight in it.

_'Hey, I heard that tune before, too! It sounds better like this, th-AAAAH FIRE BAT! DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!'_

Several musical notes later, Mia and Link walked through, this time doing the following as Toon link walked through the tunnel and back outside.

_'Finally! It was getting hot in there! Hey, there are random pillars and a duck statue. What's a duck doing in a volcano? I bet I can make a joke of that. Why'd the duck go to the volcano? Maybe... because the cuckoo was already cooked? No, that won't work.'_

"Toon Link!" Mia yelled. "See? You do daydream. Now come on!"

_'Toon? What's that? Is it something on me?'_ Toon Link turned around to examine his back. _'Nope, nothing there but my sword... wait, are my items still there?'_  
Toon Link immediately took his hat off of his head, reached inside, and felt around.  
_'It is kind of weird that everything fit in here. I mean, this engineer's uniform has no pockets, so it has a hat that can fit everything plus the Spirit Train in it instead. Makes perfect sense. But why aren't any items there? No bow... no Sand Wand, no Whip, no Boomerang... I LOST THE SPIRIT FLUTE?!'_

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOO-"

Link walked over to Toon Link. "What is it, kid?"

"I...lost my items..."

The phantom decided it was a good idea to materialize at this point, and started talking. "Master, an unknown object has been detected."  
Then it looked down. "Master, that is an unknown being that has a 98.2% chance of having already joined you. Assigning personal designation... task complete. Designation recognized as Shaded One. Shaded one, please confirm data."

Toon Link stared for a second before realizing the phantom was addressing him. "Me?"

"Please confirm: you have had a temporary emotional breakdown due to the loss of physical tools?"

Toon Link stared at Fi until Mia whispered "Fi's asking if you're sad because you lost your items."

"Oh! Um, yes?"

"The unknown object detected has an energy signature equal to the item in Master's possession known as the Slingshot. I advise investigation via dowsing, Master." The phantom disappeared into Link's sword again, leaving Toon Link to dwell on what she said.

"What was that all about?"

"I don't know, but Fi said to dowse, so..."

Toon Link interrupted the conversation. "I got it! One of my items is lying around here! Come on, other Link!"

Toon Link ran down the path until it split into three: two parts that curved around a big rock in the middle of some lava, and after a little drop, there was a rock that looked like a tree to the left. _'That doesn't make sense! How does a tree turn to rock? ...is it even rock? And is that a hole in it down there?'_  
Toon Link peered over the edge. _'Hey, bomb flowers!'  
_  
Toon Link stood up to see Link and Mia come over, Link's sword outstretched. It seemed to flash when he pointed it at the tree.

"How did Zelda get in a rock? Ugh, that stupid tornado..."

Mia jumped down the ledge... and accidentally kicked a bomb flower, which started to smoke.

"AAAAHSNAPWHYDOIKEEPDOINGTHAT -"

Mia ran over to the little hole of the tree and crawled in, while Toon Link and Link just stared.

**-BOOM-**

"Hey, there's a path on the other side of this hole! There's some rocks in the way, though." Mia's voice came from the hole.

Link stared at his previously soot-free tunic, sighed, and grabbed another bomb flower. "Mia? Get out."

Mia scrambled out of the hole, and Link rolled the bomb flower into the hole.

_'Hey, rolling them? I never thought of that! There's a lot here that-'_

**-BOOM-**

_'Yeah, the path is free! Let's get my item!'_  
Toon Link dropped over the edge, and clambered into the hole.  
_'Ouch, this is tight!'_  
After a bit of crawling, Toon Link shoved a rock out of the way, then emerged on the other side, followed by Link and Mia. The space didn't have a way to go forward, but it did have some grass, two... heart... plants... and a weird barrel.  
With something on it.  
Toon Link ran over to the barrel and examined the item before snatching it and striking a pose.  
_'Da-na-na-na! I got the Sand Wand back! And it's mold-free! YES!'  
_  
"Da-na-na-na!" said Mia. "You got the... thing from Spirit Tracks!"

"That's not Zelda... but it could be useful." Link noted. "What does it do?"

Toon Link was happy enough to comply. "See, if there's any sand, it can raise it up into cubes and we can walk on it! It's really useful. And it's mold-free!"  
Toon Link stashed the item in his hat before running over to examine the heart fruit things. Link walked over to the barrel... and opened it?  
"Oh, that's a chest?"  
_'The other Link got a red rupee! Who leaves these things around anyway? Those yellow things?'  
_  
"Let's go back and find Zelda now. Come on." said Link, before turning and crawling into the tunnel again.  
Toon Link decided to crawl in after him, followed by Mia. When he came out, he saw the other Link... running up the ledge?

"Hey! Can you help me get up?" shouted Toon Link.

"Fine." said Link, extending a hand down for Toon Link to grab. Toon Link grabbed it, and climbed up.

"Do I get lent a hand?"

"No."

Toon Link extended his hand... and fell down.  
"Owww... why does this keep happening?"

-One page break like the ones Wings uses to cover up things she doesn't want/is too lazy to write out later...-

Everyone was up, and Link's sword reaction dowsing thing led them to the path on the right, and to a yellow dude.

"Oh, huh? More strangers? And you're not with those red creeps, either. I swear, this neighborhood is getting crummier each day. Hey, I saw you over there, takin' Silva's deposits. He deserved it. You sounded like you were lookin' for someone?"

"Yes. have you seen anyone go by?" asked Link.

"Yeah... I saw this funny-dressed character go into that hole over there. ...whoa... dude, I just got a feeling like I just said somethin' in RED. It's that dude's fault, I'm sure. It was wearing all black, and it just seemed off, you know? Sorry I don't remember more, man."

The path past him curved to the left, revealing a piece of heart on a ledge.

"Mine!" said both Links at the same time.

Link and Toon Link turned to face each other. "No, it's mine!" said Toon Link.

"It's mine! I need it to save Zelda!"

"But I need it because it says something kind of similarly related in a book I read that was written 2000 years ago!"

"That's really your reason?"

"Well, no. But I've seen it work on tons of other people who do it without thinking!"

Link was about to reply when something squealed to its left. A red... fishy thing with huge ears was staring at them... then turned and waddled into a little hole.

"Uh..."

"What was that?"  
Toon Link dropped off the ledge to get a closer look. He edged toward the hole... then jerked back as the creature inside began breathing fire at him.

"Ah!"

"Ugh, it's like this place was DESIGNED to slow me down." said the other Link, turning around and spotting Bomb Flowers. He grabbed one, motioned for Toon Link to get out of the way, and rolled it in the hole.

**-Muffled Boom-**

The creature inside shrieked, and the flames stopped, revealing the path forward. Toon Link immediately ran forward, eager to grab the heart piece, then stopped, causing Link and Mia to fall into him.

"What, kid?"

Toon Link pointed at a red monster. It kind of looked like one of those red frilly miniboss guys, but more piggy and holding a horn. _'That's being used to summon reinforcements,'_ Toon Link realized, as two other red guys holding what appeared to be oversized banjo clubs in their hands ran up out of nowhere. Toon Link unsheathed his sword, heard the other Link unsheath his, and heard footsteps receding. Probably Mia's.

And then the battle was on.

Toon Link took of the club guys, feinting up and then slashing left for both, while the other Link took care of the first one. A few music notes later, Mia rejoined the group, and the path continued out to an open area. There was a ledge with some bombs on it, and below that an area with some of the fishy things inside skulls. That had huge holes on top, perfect for throwing bombs into.

Mia dropped down, onto the ledge with bomb flowers, before Toon Link could or Link could admonish her for, and started grabbing bomb flowers and throwing them at the fishy things... and missing. "Ugh! Take... this! ...and... this! Yeah! Got em'!"

If Toon Link could, he would have sweatdropped Since nobody in the group could sweatdrop (except maybe that phantom girl. Who knows what she can do?), they looked around instead and spotted a series of ledges leading up to a higher place that probably led to the heart container.

Once the smoke from the bomb cleared, Toon Link jumped off the ledge, skirted a fishy dude, and tried to reach up to the ledge. A second later, Toon Link took the Sand Wand out of his hat.

"Doh, I missed it!" said Mia, grabbing another bomb flower. Link's eyes widened, and he promptly dropped down and ran to the ledge before bombs began raining down.

Toon Link pressed a button on the center of the Wand, and pointed it at the ground below him... and nothing happened.  
_'Oh, come on! This is totally sandstone! I think. Actually, I need to learn more about rocks and when they fall down so I can avoid being crushed. Will this even work?'  
_  
The ground beneath Toon Link rumbled for a second, and then a cube...rose up from the ground.

"Wha..?"

_'Now THAT's more like it.'_ Toon Link smiled for a second, then ran to the next ledge and repeated the maneuver, Link close behind. A few more ledges were scaled in this way until the Links reached a plateau with a little hut thing.  
Which was not investigated as two Links rushed past it.

_'Ugh, he's fast! How does he go that fast? It's like he's a sprinter!'_

Both Links continued running over the plateau until a glaring lack of ground forced them to stop.

"Where's that Heart Piece?"

"I call dibs on it!"

"Dibs?"

"Yeah! I read in a 2000 year old book that said 'he who calls dibs, gets the piece first.'"

The other Link turned around and looked at Toon Link with an unimpressed face. "Do you REALLY think that's going to work?"

"Well, I've seen it work on a bunch of other people."

"I'm not sure what idiots would listen to that, but I'm not one of them, kid."

"I am NOT a kid! I went on a huge adventure! The demon Malladus escaped and tore the tower in 4 and Zelda became a ghost and we had to ride a train and go to the dungeons and play the flute and go underwater in those fishy statues and go into the Dark Realm and get tears that made us invincible and then he stole Cole's body and was like all 'RAAAAR' and then we defeated him! It was SO an adventure!"

"Sounds like one of those fictional stories the kids read."

"It is NOT fictional! Look, if it was fictional, then where'd I get THIS?" Toon Link countered, brandishing the Sand Wand.

"You could ha-"

**-BOOM-**

Two heads turned towards the sound of the explosion. Three, if you count that yellow dude over there looking sad. A slightly singed Mia stood there.

"I really hope that was the right plug, and not the one that opened an ominous lava flow..." said Mia.

An ominous rumbling noise reverberated throughout the area, and Mia decided it was a good time to start running.


	16. Diggy Spots

**Chapter 16: Diggy Spots**

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\

It figures, that as soon as someone, meaning me of course, feels she's done something the least bit brave or shinning for once, something else comes along to mess it up.

In this case, it was the ominous rumbling accompanied by the lava that was now flowing ominously from the plug I had blown up, that was apparently the wrong plug I was supposed to blow up.

I turned and started running back towards Link and Toon Link, who were up on a plateau-ledge thing about five feet above the path I was on and staring down at me with expressions that said 'Mia, you derp!'

"Mia, did you just-" Link started to huff.

"Shush! Can't you see I'm running for my life?"

"Look, that ledge!" Toon Link said, pointing to a small ledge beneath them and ahead of me. I stopped running and climbed up onto the ledge, then glanced back at the lava coming closer and realized that it could probably still get me because I wasn't quite high up enough.

"Um...Link?" I looked up at Link.

He didn't move.

"Come on...you can't _still_ be mad at me."

"..."

I tried not to start freaking out and failed. "Ahh! Ahh! AHH!"

Link grabbed my arm and pulled me up just as lava touched the spot where I had been standing. "You know...you could have just kept running." He said as I scrambled backwards as far away as I could from the edge. We all watched the lava flow by until the steady flow slowed to a trickle. "...Do you think it's about gone now?"

"I don't know, why don't you go down there and make sure?" I feigned pushing him off the ledge. He glared at me, and after a few minutes when no more lava flowed by, we all got down and walked back to where that Mogma who had tried to stop me from using the bomb flowers was.

"Let me do the bomb-handling this time?" Link picked up a bomb flower and walked over to investigate another plug similar to the one I had blown up.

"Hey! See!" The Mogma yelled at me. "I _told_ you you shouldn't mess with the bomb flowers. I mean, that lava? It burns, you know? And if it was sealed off, then it was probably sealed off for a reason. It's a good thing you blew up THAT plug," he continued, "and not that one over there-"

There was the noise of a bomb going off and we turned to see the lava receding from the area around the cave hole thing where Link's sword indicated Zelda had gone.

"You know...I sunk the road leading to that hole over there in lava because that's where all those red monsters came from. But now that you blew up the plug, there's nothing stopping more of them from moving in! Great! Just great." The Mogma said, looking depressed.

Link came back. "Let's go find Zelda."

"Okay." I turned away from the distraught Mogma and followed Link down into the area where the lava had been.

"Where do you think all that lava went?" Toon Link wondered.

"...Probably down into some Bokoblin-infested area that wouldn't be Bokoblin-infested if that Mogma hadn't plugged up that hole in the first place." I answered.

Link did that magical thing where he can run up the sides of mountains and walls and ledges, and pulled himself up onto the edge of the cave hole thing. He then ran forwards without a backwards glance.

"...H-hey! We're still down here you know!" I yelled. "And don't you think you should think about it before you go running straight into strange holes?"

I was answered by a muffled shout of surprise that grew fainter each second that Toon Link and I stood there listening to it.

"That baka. Just how are we supposed to get up there now?"

"Who cares? We have to go back anyway!" Toon Link said.

"What? ...Why?"

"So I can go get that heart container that the other Link forgot about!" He said happily.

"Uhh...but...it's all the way back there..."

"Mia, it's a _heart container_." Toon Link looked at me with a shocked expression, and then ran back the way we came.

"Hey...! Uhh...wait up I guess..." I ran after him, back to the main path, where he had already started climbing up all those annoying ledges. I decided to wait for him at the bottom, from where I could see him as he picked up the heart container and struck a 'I got an item!' pose. "Da na na naa!" I shouted up at him. "You got the heart piece! Now come down so we can go see if Link is dead or not."

Toon Link disappeared momentarily, and then reappeared a few feet up the path after jumping down from the last ledge.

"Where's the heart container?" I frowned as he walked up empty-handed.

He pointed to his hat.

"What? Really?"

"Yep!"

"Oh... Wait, is that where you keep your sand wand thingy too?"

"Uh-huh."

"Oh. Hey...could you use it to get us up there?" I asked as we walked back to the cave hole thing.

"Eh...I don't think it'll work on that dirt..." Toon Link took off his hat, pulled out the sand wand and pointed it at the ground as he pressed a button on the handle.

Nothing happened.

"Nope." Toon Link replaced his wand and put his hat back on his head. "But...do you think we could use that wind over there?" He pointed to some wind I had somehow failed to notice earlier that was blowing out of holes in the ground in front of the cave hole thing.

"Oh yeah. Come to think of it, I think that's how I got up there in the game actually."

"What?"

"Nothing. But, how are we going to- Oh. Wait. We can use...this!" I pulled the sailcloth out of my belt and shook it out. "Ta-da!"

Toon Link followed me as I walked over to one of the two columns of wind. "That was kind of weird, don't you think? How that cloth just floated out of the sky like that? Where did it even _come _from?"

"Uh...I don't know." I stepped forwards to avoid having to answer any more questions about weird things I wasn't sure how to explain. Sure enough, the wind carried me up and I landed on the ledge, but not before I scraped painfully against it. "Ow...here." I dropped the sailcloth down to Toon Link, and he used it to float up with fewer problems and landed beside me a few seconds later.

"Hey, how is this scrap of fabric able to carry us anyways? Does it have Goddess power?"

"Um...maybe?" I pushed myself up and turned around to see the ground abruptly drop away in front of us. "Gah! Why are there so many holes in this game?" I sweatdropped. "Uh, I mean world!" I corrected myself.

Toon Link didn't seem to have noticed and instead inched closer to the edge. "Huh, do you think the other Link is okay? After falling from this high?"

I waved my hand dismissively. "I'm sure he's fine. That is, if he managed to remember to use his sailcloth. And as long as he didn't hit any of those ledges on his way down," I added, noticing a bunch of ledges jutting out from the grey rock wall, all the way down to the bottom of the cave.

"You only have one of these sailcloths, right? Can it...can it hold the both of us?"

"Well...it worked for Link and I before, but that was his and not mine. This one might be...uh...defective so...um, maybe we better not take that chance..."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Toon Link looked at me. "If the other Link gets too far ahead, we won't know which way to go!"

"...I guess," I muttered.

"So...let's go?"

"..."

"Mia...if we don't hit any ledges, we'll be fine, right?" Toon Link looked puzzled. "So what's wrong?"

"...Nothing..." I walked up beside him, nervously looking down at the cave floor far below. "It's just kind of-"

A piece of the ledge then very mysteriously crumbled away and my foot slipped off the edge. I panicked and tried to grab onto something, that something being Toon Link's leg, and only succeeded in dragging the both of us off and into empty air. I shrieked as I suddenly found myself falling down towards ledges and other doom such as the bottom.

"Ahh! Ahh!" I wailed as I fell past a ledge that nearly took off my leg.

"Ahh!"

"Link! The sailcloth! Use the-"

I yelped as he shook open the sailcloth and we were jerked to the side momentarily before straightening out and missing another one of those ledges by mere inches.  
We floated down the last few feet and landed at the bottom of the cave. I let go of Toon Link and staggered sideways, falling to the rock floor as my legs wobbled.

"Are...are you okay?" I asked, while checking my limbs to make sure they were all still there.

"I-I guess," Toon Link stammered, struggling out from underneath the sailcloth and looking sort of freaked out.

"Let's not do that again, okay?"

Toon Link adjusted his hat and brushed his hair out of his face. "Yeah..."

I picked myself up off the floor and looked around the cave we had fallen into. There was one of those bird statues nearby, and also a doorway that sort of looked like the entrance to a mine shaft or something. Since this seemed to be the only path out of this place, I decided to start looking for Link that way.

"Come on...we should probably catch up to Link so we don't get lost in this place..."

"That's what I was trying to say earlier...!"

A little ways into the passageway we turned a corner and saw a Mogma half-sitting in a hole in the floor. "Grr...those creeps! They just, like, shimmied on in, and took over our territory..." He muttered to himself, then noticed us. "Yow! What're you doing? Don't be sneakin' up on me like that!"

"Hey, have you seen anyone come through here?" Toon Link asked. "He has a glowing sword and looks sort of like me."

"Huh? You're looking for you're friend? Could..that be him over there?" The Mogma pointed ahead, to where the passageway opened up into another room like the one we had fallen into. But this one had less ledges and more stalactite things that grew from the floor almost all the way up to the ceiling, I noticed. And Bokoblins everywhere.

Link was down there and trying to fight three of them at once, and seemed to be getting pushed into a corner. Toon Link unsheathed his sword and ran down to help, and soon the three Bokoblins that had surrounded Link were no longer doing so because they were lying on the ground, probably dead. But more kept coming out of the different passageways that led out of the room, probably because one was standing on a long wooden structure of some sort while blowing an obnoxious-sounding horn.

"Link!" I yelled from beside the Mogma. "Go get that one over there!"

Link ran forward to meet the new monsters, either not hearing or deliberately choosing to ignore me.

I tried again. "Toon Link! That one blowing the horn over there! Go get him!"

"They probably can't hear you," the Momgma wisely noted when Toon Link also seemed not to hear me.

"Argh." I stepped past the Mogma and into the room, pressing myself against the wall and starting to inch in the direction of the horn-blowing monster who, it seemed, had inexhaustible lungs.

"That's probably not a very good idea," the Mogma observed.

"No," I agreed and kept inching sideways. I hid behind one of those stalactite column things, and then sprinted across the room to another stalactite that was beside the wooden platform. "Here goes nothing," I muttered, and then came out from behind my hiding place. "Hey...um...you know that annoying noise you're making? It's really not polite."

The Bokoblin noticed me and almost choked on his horn in surprise, which would have been funny had it not hefted the massive rusty knife thing it was holding in its other hand.

"Um...yeah. You know what? Never mind. Yaaaagh!" I turned and started running away.

"Ack! What're you doing!? No, don't lead it over- Augh!" The Mogma dove underground as I ran back around the room and towards him.

"Gah!" I tripped over the nice little pile of dirt he left and fell on my face. "...Uh..." I got up and promptly ran into the wall. "...Ow!"  
The Bokoblin made an unpleasant screeching sound and I fumbled for my sword as it came closer. "S-stay back! I'm warning you! I...totally know how to use this..." I pulled it out of its sheath and dropped it, and then picked it up and started waving it back and forth in front of my face in what I hoped was a somewhat menacing way. The Bokoblin promptly knocked it out of my hands with its huge knife and that was when I decided that it was now a good time to start panicking.  
"Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!" I huddled against the wall and closed my eyes, which probably isn't the best idea when facing imminent death, but there has to be a reason why everybody does it in the movies. I cringed as I heard a grunt, and then a thud. Then something sharp poked me in the arm. "Ahh! Ahh! AHH!"

"Mia, stop screaming." I opened my eyes and saw Link poking me with the sharp end of the monster horn, the owner of which being now incapacitated by a nasty sword slash and lying face down on the ground in front of me.

I looked at Link. "I...will never ever punch you again unless you do something incredibly dumb and stupid and you totally deserve it!"

"Whatever." Link dropped the horn and sheathed his sword. "Let's go."

"Is that your sword Mia?" Toon Link pointed at the sword on the ground.

"Yeah...kind of." I went and picked it up.

"I didn't know you knew how to use a sword,"

"She doesn't." Link said, then started walking away.

"Wait!" The Mogma dug back out of the ground, blocking his path. "...You took out every last one of those guys?! You're one tough customer!"

"...I guess,"

"Thanks for all you're help! I don't blame you for not knowing this, but us Mogmas always honor our debts. Let me give you something to prove it," the Mogma continued. "Here! Take these things! They're pretty special if I do say so myself."

"Da na na naa!"

"What..." Link said as he was handed a pair of gloves with claws on them. "Um..."

"With these, you should be able to get to the top of that ledge right behind me. Just try digging in that hole over there!"

"Okay..."

"Hey! Cool!" Toon Link said as Link put on the gloves and dug in the pile of soft dirt beneath the ledge, releasing a small column of wind. "Those might actually be almost as useful as my sand wand!"

Link turned and looked at him. "Your sand wand couldn't have gotten us up there,"

"It could have if...that dirt was sand instead of dirt!"

"But it isn't."

"Yeah, well...there's gotta be some sand around here somewhere." Toon Link caught my sailcloth as I threw it down to him after floating up and floated up himself, Link following him soon after. The path went straight ahead for a while, and then branched off to the left and right.

I looked between the two paths. "Okay then...what does your sword say Link?"

Link took out his sword. "...It's not _saying_ anything but it's not glowing either. Maybe Zelda didn't come this way?"

"Okay, let's go this way." I made an executive decision and took the path to the left.

"Wow. Look. A dead end. Good choice Mia." Link said.

"Well how was I supposed to know?"

"Wait. Look, one of those..." Toon Link giggled, "diggy spots!" He pointed to another one of those diggy spots.

"I really think we should- " Link started to say when I interrupted him.

"Just go check that diggy spot. It could be useful."

Link reluctantly walked over and scooped a few handfuls of dirt out of the way of another column of wind.

"Aha! See? It was useful." I observed as Link pulled out his sailcloth.

"Hey kid, can I see that for a minute?" Link held his hand out as Toon Link floated up after him.

"This?" Toon Link looked at the sailcloth he was holding. "Uh...sure."

"Thank you." Link tucked both sailcloths in his belt and started climbing up a ladder that was on the wall.

"...What? Hey! Link! You can't just-"

"Mia, there's probably nothing useful up here anyways..." Link muttered, his voice growing fainter the higher he climbed. "And if there is, you'll probably find some way to mess it up."

I narrowed my eyes and watched the two of them reach the top of the ladder and climb over the edge and out of sight. "You are SO not getting that heart piece that fell off the chandelier at the Lumpy Pumpkin."

They came back sooner than I had expected.

"Just like I thought," Link climbed down the ladder and jumped down to the ground. "Nothing useful."

Toon Link dropped down from the ledge. "Well there were those pots with the rupees in them."

"Yes, but there was no way Zelda could have gone, so let's head back and go the other way." Link said and handed my sailcloth back to me.

"Hmph." I followed him and Toon Link back the way we came, and then down the other path.

"Hey look! Bomb flowers." Toon Link ran ahead of us and into a room filled with thick, rock-shaped pillars of rock with small holes near the bottom. "I wonder why they're-"

"Kid, don't-! Stay away from the- "

"Ahh!" Toon Link squeaked as fire came shooting out of one of the holes in one of the rocks. Link ran forward, grabbed him, and dragged him away from the fire by his arm.

I blinked. "That was close!"

"Ugh, more of those red fishy things?" Toon Link squinted at the fire and then ran towards the nearest bomb flower.

Link hurriedly stepped in front of him. "Wait. If you throw a bomb at the fire, the explosion will probably be more dangerous than normal. But if we throw it from over here..." Link picked up a bomb and grabbed Toon Link by the arm again, retreating a few feet back down the path before rolling the bomb at the stream of fire. "...We'll be out of range of the blast and still hit that fishy thing."

There was a more dangerous-sounding than normal boom. The force of that boom sent me flying backwards and left me more than a little singed.

"Uhh..." I spat dirt out of my mouth and picked myself up from where I had slid to a stop right in front of Link's boots. "Link...you...you moron!"

"Well get out of the way next time," Link stepped around me and walked towards the huge column of wind, the path to which being no longer blocked by annoying, red, fire-spewing fishy things. I wiped the soot off my face and stomped after him.

"Hmm." Link frowned at the wind. "That looks like it'll probably take us outside, and once you're up there, you probably can't throw a sailcloth back down, so- What are you doing?" He asked as Toon Link took out his sword and started cutting through the random patches of the long, yellowish, dry-looking grass all around us.

"Rupees!"

"...Rupees?"

"Yeah! Everyone knows that when you cut grass you get rupees. See?" Toon Link reached down and picked up a blue rupee, showing it to Link.

"Ooo. Rupees." I took out my sword and sliced at the grass.

"Mia- Ugh! Listen, we have to get going."

"Or what?" I demanded, putting a yellow rupee in my pocket.

"Or the sun will go down! Now stop cutting the grass and give your sailcloth to him," he pointed at Toon Link, "and stop wasting time and come over here."

I stopped cutting the grass and gave my sailcloth to Toon Link before going over there.

Link gripped his sailcloth. "Don't let go or else you'll fall and it will probably hurt."

"What? Falling from up high hurts? Really? What is this madness? What- Ahh!"

Link jumped forwards just as I had reluctantly clasped my arms around his neck, and the wind blew us upwards at a scarily fast speed and out into the hot, open air again.

"Whoa! Now there're green and grey ones!" A Mogma gasped as we went sprawling to the ground.

"Ahh!" Toon Link came shooting upwards and spiraled downwards beside us.

"One of your kind just came charging through here." The Mogma said as we all got up. "Dressed all in black! That a friend of yours?"

"Um..." Link pulled out his sword and pointed it in the direction the Mogma indicated. It immediately started glowing. "It could be, I guess."

"See that up ahead?" The Mogma pointed at a stone structure that looked a lot like a bridge with the middle part missing. A river of lava flowed past underneath. "That's what we call a drop-dead dead end, but this character danced right over it. Seriously? Jumping over a gap like that? My jaw hit the dirt."

Link glanced over at the bridge, and then walked over to inspect it. He stopped as there was a loud rumbling noise and the middle of the bridge slowly slid out of a part on the other side, and into the one on our side.

"Hey! You, the goddess's chosen hero..." Someone called, and we all looked up to see a figure standing on the top of the bridge. "Zelda is ahead...hurry." The figure turned and jumped down, disappearing somewhere on the other side.

"...Who was that?" Toon Link asked.

"Clearly someone who thought that Link's glowing sword wasn't obvious enough."

"Did you hear that? Zelda's just up ahead!" Link ran forwards.

"Master, I detect a new presence." I heard Fi say as I started following after Link across the bridge. "There is a 2% chance it is a being of a higher power deliberately attempting to hide its presence from us, and there is a 98% chance that is the being known as a Remlit behind you."

I stopped. And slowly turned around... and a Remlit pawed out from behind a part of the bridge. "Mew!"


	17. Sand Hills and Stuff

**A/N: Took long, huh?**

**Chapter 17: Sand Hills and Stuff**

* * *

/\/\/\

Link  
/\/\/\/\

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Startled, Link gripped his sword and spun around, expecting to see more Bokoblins or some other as threatening thing.

"Ahhhh! Ahhhh!"

What he saw was Mia running around in circles.

"Ahhhhh!"

And a remlit sitting all cute-like beside the bridge.

"Ahh!"

Not really impressed, Link watched Mia kick up dust, slowly wear a track down in the same circle of dirt she kept running over, and continue to ahh.

"Ahhhh!"

The blonde kid trotted up to him. "Why is Mia screaming?"

"Because." Link answered in the most unimpressed tone of voice he could manage.

"Why?"

"...Because."

"Because what?"

"..." Link pointed his sword the way he had been going to make sure that it still glowed blue. Mia ran over and hid behind him, and he grumbled under his breath and sheathed his sword.

"Aww!" Toon Link said as the remlit padded over, let out a small remlit sound, and sat back down in front of Link's boots. "It's cute!"

"No it's not! It's evil!"

"So...therefore it can't be cute in the least bit?" Link said to Mia over his shoulder.

"That's right...!"

Link rolled his eyes and faced forwards.

"It doesn't look evil," Toon Link commented.

"Well it is." Mia said.

"...Why?"

"Because."

"Because what?"

"It doesn't matter." Link frowned.

Toon Link turned to him. "Why doesn't it matter?"

Link kept frowning. "Because Zelda is just up ahead. And also..." He squinted upwards. "...If nighttime comes while we're down here, it would be...really bad."

"What? What do you mean by 'down here'? And why would it be so bad?"

"Just because." Link snapped.

"Because what?" Toon Link demanded. "And did you say Zelda? Did Zelda come here too? Where is she?" He squinted at Link suspiciously. "And how do you know her?"

Link blinked a few times. "What?"

"I said-"

"Never mind!" Exasperated, Link stepped around the remlit and started walking towards a small, worn out bird statue.

"I'll explain stuff later," He heard Mia say to Toon Link. Then her tone of voice changed. "What are you doing?"

Against his better judgement, Link looked back and saw Toon Link alternating between looking between Mia and the remlit.

"Mia, can we keep it?"

"What?" She looked horrified.

"If we leave it here, some monster will probably come along and get it." Toon Link said sadly. He looked back up at Mia. "Please?"

"NO."

"Aww..." Toon Link whined, then noticed Link watching him. "Can I keep him?"

Link glanced down at the remlit and muttered, "Whatever."

"Yay!"

"Link!" Mia protested. "How could you? It's completely evil!"

Link looked over at her. "Yes, and?"

"And...and...it's possessed! Like...like an Akuryou or something!"

"Acker-yow?" Toon Link grinned. "What's an Acker-yow?"

"Evil spirit demon monster..." Mia began muttering.

Toon Link giggled as the remlit made a rumbling purring noise and flicked its bristly, brown and white-striped tail. "Aw!"

"Freaky stalker cat thing!" Mia finished, then glared at Link as if the strange, yet irresistible cuteness of remlits and big-eyed kids was somehow his fault. "You're crazy." She told him as he turned again and headed towards the bird statue, which he now noticed had two paths on either side of it.

"Thank you."

"I can't believe you," She grumbled. "What are you going to do when it goes all psycho demon cat and tries to kill everyone, huh?" Her boots scuffed against the loose rocks on the ground as she hurried to catch up.

Link started walking faster. "Well hopefully we won't BE here to witness that."

"He's gonna want to take it back to Skyloft." Mia predicted. "Then what?"

"Then YOU can carry it."

"...Don't look at me with that tone of voice!"

"What's Skyloft?" Toon Link trotted up to Link, the remlit padding cheerfully alongside him.

Link stopped and looked at him. "A magical place where the streets are paved with gold, the rivers run with magical water, and everyone has wings and flies around." He said brightly.

Toon Link's eyes grew wide, and his steps slowed slightly. "Really? What happens when the sun shines on the streets? Does everyone stumble around crashing into stuff 'cause it's so bright?"

Link stared dully at him for a moment, then turned and kept walking.

"He's lying." Mia told Toon Link.

". . . Oh."

Link paused. The path to the right of the small bird statue led to a nearby cave with a bunch of boulders blocking the entrance and no bombs around anywhere. To the left was a somewhat steep path that seemed to lead up towards the mountain.

Link went that way and shortly came to a thick stream of lava. A white, wispy haze hovered in the air above it, but he could still see through it to the other side where a few round, green stamina fruits were growing in the dirt. In front of what looked like a frighteningly steep, sandy hill.

There was a big, flat rock in the middle of the lava of that somehow stayed floating in the same spot as the lava oozed past, and Link used it to jump across.

"Oh great." Mia wobbled a bit as she jumped cautiously after him. "How are we supposed to get up_ that_?" She jumped again and landed beside him.

Link squinted upwards and noticed a wooden platform about halfway up the slope. "First, let's try getting up there," he decided, figuring that it would be extremely hard if not impossible to make it all the way up the hill in one go.

"Where? That platform thing with the monster on it?" Toon Link came up beside them. Mia nervously eyed the remlit he was now carrying and immediately shifted as to put Link between it and her. Link didn't even bother rolling his eyes. He instead looked up at the platform and saw a Bokoblin patrolling lazily back and forth.

"...Yes." He answered after a moment, seeing no other alternative way to make it up the hill. "It doesn't look like it has noticed us yet, so be quiet. And try not to slip on your way up or else you'll roll down into that lava."

"And that probably wouldn't be good, right?" Toon Link looked up at him.

"...Right." Link said.

"Okay, well, you seem to know so much about everything, so you can go first." Mia said generously.

Link gave her a look that he hoped was withering, before jogging forwards, and then breaking into a sprint. The sand was slipperier than he had expected, and he had to lean forwards to keep his balance.

Sweat stung his eyes, and his legs began to burn as he struggled further upwards. More than once, his feet almost went sliding out from under him, and it seemed like forever before he finally reached the platform. Once there, he heaved himself up, and shakily stood, panting heavily.

Then the Bokoblin noticed him and promptly tried to take off his head.

Link just barely ducked out of the way of the massive club. He drew his sword, and then his rubbery legs buckled and for a few frightening seconds, he was teetering on the very edge of the platform. Gritting his teeth, he thrust both his arms forwards and used the momentum to stumble away from the edge just as the Bokoblin surged forwards... and impaled itself on Link's extended sword. It was so unexpected that Link barely stopped himself from jumping backwards in disgust as blood began to trickle from the monster's chest and around his blade. The Bokoblin slumped over heavily and released its club, which rolled off the side of the platform and down the sandy slope. Link heard a yelp and a "Hey!" and looked over the edge at Mia and Toon Link, who were climbing up cubes of sand that Toon Link was raising with his wand thing.

Mia glared up at him. "You almost killed us!"

Link wiped his forehead before turning and pulling his sword out of the Bokoblin.

Toon Link got up to the platform first and crawled up with the remlit close behind him.

"I hate sand." Mia grumbled, grabbing Link's leg and using it to pull herself up. Link said nothing, but shook her off and turned towards the mountain to see-

A large rock rolling towards them.

"Ahh!" Mia dove to the side and Link jumped out of the way as the boulder rumbled past, bumping over the platform and missing them by inches.

"W-where did that come from?" Toon Link asked, his huge eyes huge. Link looked up and saw another Bokoblin at the very top of the hill, straining and struggling to lift another large rock.

"Oh...great." Link pushed Mia over, stood, drew his sword once again, and ran upwards, gasping at the burn in his legs that hadn't gone away from his last run. He got to the top and pulled himself onto the rock ledge right before his legs were about to give out on him.

The Bokoblin trying to lift the huge rock stopped trying to lift the huge rock and pulled out one of those rusty, jagged-edge knife things. Link lifted his sword to block the first blow and jumped away from the next. His legs were killing him. And two more knife and club-wielding Bokoblins were running towards him from what looked like one of those abandoned Bokoblin camps he and Toon Link had seen earlier.

Link turned around, and promptly hit the rocky wall.  
The realization that he was cornered made him almost start to panic. His breathing accelerated, and he whirled back around, lashing out with his sword in a panic. It was a sloppy attack that only left an opening for a large club to catch him in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. He fell against the wall, gasping as the three Bokoblins pressed closer, snarling, their freakish eyes narrowed evilly. Like, deja vu-ish.

Link's eyes widened as they raised their monster blades, drew them back and-

"Yaaah!"

The tip of a sword unexpectedly pierced through one of the monster's chests.

Link jerked a little in surprise. Then the sword was withdrawn. And the monster slumped forwards and onto Link.

"Gahh!" He fell to the ground, trapped. The two other Bokoblins whirled toward Toon Link, who was standing there with his sword all bloodied. He narrowed his eyes as he set his feet and struck a defensive position, though Link noticed he was shaking slightly.

"Um...other Link...?" he muttered nervously, and then yelped as both monsters lunged for him at the same time.

Link twisted his arms and struggled for a minute before heaving the monster off of him and staggering to his feet.

"Yeah! Go get him Toon Link!" Mia yelled from a safe distance.

Toon Link ducked a slash aimed at his head, rolled forwards behind one of the Bokoblins and struck it in the back before it could turn around to block.

Link stared, sort of impressed. Though...he wouldn't ever admit it.

He heard a screech and whipped his head around, going at the other Bokoblin before it could go at him. It side-stepped Link's swipe before slashing back with a blow that hit the part of Link's sword right above the hilt, almost knocking it out of his hands. It followed up by swiping at Link's face with a huge, clawed hand, and Link dove to the side.

"Uhh!" He landed awkwardly on his right arm.

Seeing an opening, the Bokoblin lumbered forward, the same time that Link saw a flash of florescent green out of the corner of his eye. He frowned, and leapt up, determined not to be outdone by a kid in tights. Startled by his sudden intensity, the Bokoblin stumbled backwards, then tripped over something and fell. Its yellowish eyes flared with a sudden panic as Link stepped forwards and raised his sword before bringing it down quickly, struggling not to wince at the sickening sight as the Bokoblin spasmed beneath him, taking forever before becoming unnaturally still.

Toon Link stopped short beside him, panting, his messy hair even more out of place then usual. Link glanced at his unnervingly big eyes and then looked away and went over to a patch of dead grass to clean his sword the best he could.

"...Hey, other Link?" Toon Link asked.

Link glanced at him. "What?"

He opened his mouth and started to say something, then stopped and was silent for a minute "Where's Acker-yow?" He finally asked.

"Who knows?" Link muttered, sheathing his sword and heading towards the now-empty monster camp.

"That stupid remlit. It's probably way back down at the bottom of the hill." Mia said cheerfully. She paused to wrinkle her nose at the dead monsters before running after Link.

"What?" Toon Link ran after her. "Hey! Hey, you guys! We have to go back!"

"No." Link said shortly.

Toon Link footsteps slowed. "But..."

Link kept walking through the camp, ignoring the crude, hut-like structures and walking over a precarious wooden bridge across a large gap in the path, then into a cave.

Behind him, he heard Mia say something to Toon Link that he couldn't make out. A few seconds later, Toon Link ran up and started enlightening him with what Mia had apparently told him.

"Did you know that those remlit things can fly?" He asked in an amazed tone of voice.

"Yes."

"I guess that makes sense and all, because their ears are so big, but I never would have guessed it. What else can they do? Their tails are super long; is there a reason for that?"

Link ran his hand along the cool rock walls and stopped in front of a dead-end and a wall covered in vines. "I have no idea."

"Well, at least Acker-yow can fly away from whatever monsters try to get him."

"Akuryou," Came Mia's voice from around the corner.

"Akuryou." Toon Link corrected himself then asked Link, "Do you think we could go back and find him later? After we're finished with whatever we're trying to do?"

"I don't know." Link grabbed a handful of vines and began to climb up the wall, which was much easier than getting up the sand hill had been.

When he got to the top and climbed out onto a thin path, he saw some fiery blob monsters. And also, another, even steeper sandy hill. He sighed, then pulled out his sword and slashed the fiery things to gooey splatters.

"Eww!" Mia said, stepping through the orange goo on the ground. Then she noticed how high up they were and froze. "Eep!"

"Mia, come on."

"Eep!"

"Mia, _come on_."

"Eep!"

She didn't move, and eventually, Link had to tow her off of the path by her elbow.

At the top of the steep, sandy hill, he saw a structure that reminded him of the temple back in the forest. He also noticed that there were even more platforms with Bokoblins on them. But the hill was wider, and this time, Link was able to sneak up behind them and knock them down with a minimal fight when they weren't looking. It would have been comical if climbing up the hill wasn't so exhausting.

The rock-throwing monsters surprisingly posed less of a problem than anything else Link had dealt with that day. There were a lot more of them, but Link just waited until they ran out of rocks to throw, then ran up and took care of them, resulting in more monster blood, much to Mia's disgust.

"Eww!" She said when she and Toon Link climbed off of the last cube of sand and over to where Link had sprawled out on the ground, utterly spent from fighting the Bokoblin that had been waiting for him at the top of the freakishly steep hill. "Link?" She nudged him in the ribs with her foot. He rolled over and sat up and glared.

"Wow, that temple is huge!" Toon Link shoved his wand in his hat, put his hat back on his head, and ran up to inspect the huge door that was elaborately painted with weird patterns. "Aw, it's locked." He said, when pushing against it did nothing.

"Hmm... I'm sure they buried it around here someplace, but I can't find it."

Link looked over to two Mogmas partially in the ground.

"Yo, Ledd! This is the place, ain't it? So what's it they buried again?" One with a single tuft of green hair leaned back slightly and crossed his arms.

"A key! K-E-Y, KEY!" Ledd shouted in answer, though they were barely two feet away from each other.

Toon Link perked up. "A key?"

The two Mogmas blinked at him, then noticed Mia and Link.

"You guys again? How did you get up that freakishly steep hill of sand back there?" The green-haired one said.

"We used our wings and we flew!"

Ledd squinted at Mia. "Really?"

"Of course not." She said in disgust.

"Did you say something about a key?" Link asked impatiently.

"What?" Ledd looked over at him. "Oh yeah. You know the red monsters? Well apparently, they busted up the key to that door and hid the pieces all over the place."

"Hid them? Where?"

"In the ground of course!" Ledd answered Toon Link. "I'm telling you, one of the five pieces is buried around here somewhere."

"Hey..." The other Mogma said thoughtfully. "That reminds me... That strange blonde girl in the weird clothes got taken away too."

"Oh yeah, Cobal. That's right!" Ledd leaned forward and lowered his voice, looking up at them through his red hair. "I bet they got something really valuable in there. And that blond girl they took is probably part of their master plan too. I'm telling you, I can smell the riches from here!"

Link had heard enough. "Where's the key?" He demanded.

Cobal looked at him lazily. "We told you already, the pieces are buried who knows where. And anyways, it's not like you'll ever find them. We'll find them before you! And get to the treasure first too!" He said smugly.

"Hey..." Mia asked suddenly. "Why are you so worried about a key when you can just dig your way in?"


	18. Lava Is Not Cool

**A/N: Hey! Hi! :D**

Chapter 18: Lava...Is Not Cool

* * *

/\/\/\  
Mia  
/\/\/\/\/\

"What? Um...er..."

"Just saying." I said. "Wouldn't it be a lot easier?"

Ledd grinned. "Huh. Hey, you ain't as dumb as you look!"

I stared at his red hair. "...Um, thanks..."

Both Mogmas started digging.

I jumped back and rolled my eyes as they disappeared into the ground. "You're welcome!"

"Master Link, I require your confirmation on critical information obtained from that Mogma conversation." Fi said.

"That 'oddly garbed' figure they were talking about is probably Zelda..." Link realized.

I started brushing dirt off of my sweater to distract myself from making a snide comment.

"My calculations agree, Master. There is a 90% probability that the figure in question was indeed Zelda." Fi flew over to the closed temple door. "Additionally, I calculate there is a 95% probability that the key to this door is made of the same material composition as the mechanism that bars it. I have detected objects of the same material in the surrounding area and registered them as dowsing targets."

"Oh yeah. This part."

Toon Link sneezed a little from all the dust and stuff hanging in the air. "What?"

"This stupid part, where we have to find all the stupid key pieces." I grumbled. "Though, shouldn't we technically be able to dig our way into the temple too Link? We have those gloves."

When Link didn't answer, I looked up and saw him holding his glowing sword in front of him and walking away.

"...Fine." I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, to the right of the temple.

"Where are you going?" Toon Link ran to catch up to me.

"We may as well go and...try to find the other key pieces. Or something."

Toon Link frowned. "But, we don't have that glowing compass thing in our swords."

"Yeah, but those Mogmas said that they're are all buried around here somewhere, right?"

"But the other Link has the digging gloves."

"Well...you can use your sand wand to get any pieces that might be in the sand. And if we don't find anything, we can always just come back and let Link do everything." I said.

"Okay." Toon Link took out his sand wand and pointed it at a random sandy patch of ground in the middle of the rocky path. The sand was raised, I went over and stood up on my toes to see if anything had been brought up to the surface, and a few seconds later, the sand collapsed all over me.

"Eeek! Aw... Gross!"

Toon Link ran past me and towards the sand as I was stumbling away. "Rupees!" He said, coming back to me seconds later with a few sparkling in his hand. "But no key piece..."

I brushed at my clothes as the last of the sand cleared out of the air. "Oh well."

It was really hot out. Like, really hot. I rolled up the sleeves of my sweater, but that didn't really help much. My sandy hair stuck to my neck, and the sword sheath kept sticking to my bare shoulder. It was quite annoying.

"Stupid sword..." I muttered, and adjusted it for the hundredth time.

We walked through another abandoned monster camp and into a cave-like passageway filled with fire bats. They dropped green rupees every time Toon Link killed one of them, which was both cool and weird.

On the other side of the cave was a deep gorge with a bunch of vines growing on the wall opposite us. Growing in the dirt in front of a bridge were weeds and some heart fruit, but more weeds than heart fruit.

"Hey Mia?" Toon Link asked as we walked across the bridge and into another cave-like passage.

"What?"

"Why do you have a sword if you don't know how to use it?"

"Because everyone seemed to think that it would be a really good idea to have something to defend myself with." I answered as I stepped over a few random monster skulls lying on the ground. "But yeah. Pretty useless, huh?"

"Well..." Toon Link half-turned towards me. "Maybe I could show you some moves sometime."

I decided to not tell him about Groose because...I didn't really want to talk about Groose.

"...Okay. Maybe." I told him, and then stopped walking forward as we came out of the cave. In front of us was another sandy hill, sloping steeply downwards. "Ugh! What's with all the sand? Seriously!"

"Do you think there are some key pieces down there somewhere?" Toon Link stared down the hill. "What about those weird column things? We could probably use that wind coming up out of the ground to get up there and check."

I looked and saw that what he meant by weird column things were in fact, weird column things. Two of them, just...there, like they had been picked up from somewhere else in the area and then plunked down in the middle of the hill.

"It looks like a good place to hide something, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." I agreed and pushed my hair out of my face. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to check now that we're here anyways."

"Okay," He began inching forwards.

"N-no, wait. Maybe we should think about this a little more..."

Because that hill was really steep.

Unfortunately, me running forward to stop him caused the sand we were standing on to shift forward as well.

Toon Link looked at me with his big eyes as the sand beneath my feet began to sink. Then, without warning, a huge part of the ground suddenly collapsed out from underneath me.

"Ahhh! Ahhh!"

I eventually stopped screaming because sand was getting in my mouth. So instead, I stuck out my hands to try and slow myself down, but it didn't really work. Sand pelted my face and flew everywhere as I kept sliding. I panicked even more when I started to pick up speed, and even considered opening my mouth to start screaming again but then-

"Oof!"

-I suddenly slammed into something very hard.

Whatever it was stopped my rolling, but also kind of knocked the breath out of me. Despite the very awkward angle I had stopped at, I managed to roll over and cough up enough sand to make me feel sick. When I had gotten my breath back, I wiped away the sand on my eyelids, opened my eyes, and discovered that what I had slammed into was a raised wall of sand.

"Mia!" Toon Link was half-running, half-sliding down towards me, holding his sand wand.

I shut my eyes again and grimaced as he slid to a stop beside me, showering more sand all over my face.

"Sorry," he said. "Are you okay?"

"No." I felt absolutely _full_ of sand. It was absolutely gross. "Stupid sand. I hate sand!" I sat up and started brushing at my clothes and hair.

"Hey look, that column thing is right there. C'mon!" Toon Link stood up and started climbing toward the column thing that was right there, and the convenient streams of wind that inexplicably blew out of the sand.

I grumbled and stood up, swaying for a minute before finding my balance on the unstable ground. Every step I took after Toon Link, it felt like my feet were going to fly out from under me. I gritted my teeth. "I hate sand." I told him again when I got up to where he was waiting.

He looked at me and giggled a little. "Maybe the wind will blow it all off of you."

"Maybe..." I took out the sailcloth.

Toon Link ran behind me and grabbed onto my neck. I winced, and then stepped forward into the wind, which blew us up onto the platform thing. I was sort of happy to see that some of the sand actually had been blown off me. I still felt gritty though, and swiped at my neck in annoyance.

"Watch there not be anything here." I said as Toon Link raised all the sand, which collapsed a few minutes later, revealing...nothing.

Toon Link kicked at the sand for a bit and then stopped. "Should we go try that one?" He pointed to the other column thing, a little ways below us. "We could probably just float over, right?"

"I guess." I waited for him to grab onto my neck again, before raising the sailcloth and gingerly jumping off the edge. There was no breeze whatsoever. The air was still and grossly hot, but we had just enough momentum to carry us to the lower column thingy. Which, weirdly enough, also had sand on it.

When we landed, Toon Link let go and raised his sand wand. "I bet we find something this time."

"I bet we don't."

"What if we do?"

"Then...I'll give you a heart piece I found one day?"

"Really!?" He quickly turned and started raising sand. When it all collapsed, he bent down and started sifting through the loose sand that had been brought up from underground to the surface. There was a lot, so after a minute, I sighed and crouched down and started pushing it around too.

For a while, all we found was nothing. But then-

"Hey Mia!" Toon Link bounded towards me and slowly opened his hand.

"...That's not a key piece."

"I know, but a purple rupee...! That's worth like... fifty rupees," he said dreamily.

"Hmph." I went back to the sand, which felt hot even though it had just been brought up from underground. Stupid sun, going and making everything hot.

I listlessly shifted around, not paying much attention until I felt something cold and hard. Then I turned and dug down with both hands, grabbed and lifting it out, and found an irregularly-shaped piece of metal about the size of my hand. It looked like a broken triangle. The sun reflected off of the bronzy metal, getting Toon Link's attention as I tilted it to get the sand off.

"Aw..." He with much disappointment.

"It's okay. You can still have the heart piece." I told him, and started wiping the stubborn grains of sand off the jagged edges of the metal with my sleeve.

"Really?"

"Well...yeah. I mean, it's not like I have any use for it. I think."

Toon Link stood up. "Once I have that, all I'll need is two more!"

"And then...what?"

"I'll have a full heart container." He answered, and stepped over the piles of sand and to the edge.

"How do you even use those? Are they absorbed into you or something? Or are they like the heart fruit? Do you eat heart containers?" I demanded, as he used his wand to raise the sand right below us.

"Uh, no!"

"Oh good. That would have been kind of...weird."

Toon Link sat and dropped off the edge onto the raised sand below him. "So, do you have it with you?"

I jumped down after him, key piece in hand. "No, it's back in Skyloft."

"Oh. You won't forget about it, will you?"

"Nope."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I guess."

It was barely noticeable at first, but the higher we climbed up the hill, the dizzier I got. I tried to ignore it, but then I stupidly looked back behind me.

I gulped and hurriedly turned around, concentrating only on climbing up the next cube of sand and not dropping the key piece because that would really suck. "Uh h-hey. Are we almost there yet?"

"Yep!"

I swallowed and grabbed the edge of the next cube, wincing at how the rough sand dug into my hands. My arms were starting to hurt from all of this grabbing and climbing stuff.

Once we got to the top, I quickly walked into the cave passageway and sat down, panting a little from the heat and the effort of climbing.

Toon Link dropped his sand wand on the ground and plunked down beside me. He pointed at the key piece. "Can I see?"

I handed it over and then started taking off my boots to empty the sand out of them. We were surrounded by the rumbling noises of the volcano, and even though we were now in the shade, the air still felt thick enough that I could grab at it and come away with a solid piece.

"Mia?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are we?"

...Skyward...Sword...?

I sweatdropped. "You mean like, this place? Like this area?"

"Uh...yeah?"

"Eldin. Eldin Volcano."

"Oh. It kind of looks like Death Mountain, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess." I put my boots back on.

"Hey, Mia?" Toon Link asked again.

"Yeah?"

"It was kind of scary falling out of the sky all of the sudden. How did you get here?"

"Well, actually...kind of the same way you did."

"You fell out of the sky too?"

"Yup."

He winced. "Did it hurt when you landed?"

"Actually...I kind of...sort of...fell onto someone and their Loftwing." I grinned nervously.

"What's a Loftwing?"

"They're huge birds. Everyone uses them to get around here. Like, instead of trains."

"Does the other Link have one? Is that how we're going to get to that place in the sky?" Link tilted his head and looked through the cave entrance and at the sky.

"Yup." I sighed, following his gaze and noticing with some concern that the daylight seemed to be fading. That wasn't good.

"Mia?"

"...What?"

"Should we...stop wasting time and start going back now?" Toon Link gave the key piece back to me.

"Yeah, probably." I pushed myself up, and we started walking back through the cave. Then I turned the corner and ran right into Link. "Ahh!"

He blinked, startled. Then he got this really irritated expression on his face. "Where were you?"

"Over there." I pointed back behind me. "Why, where were you?"

"Looking for you."

"Really? ...Why?"

"Because you weren't where I left you when I came back!"

"Oh." I crossed my arms. "Okay. I guess you have a good reason to be mad. I mean, you asked us so nicely to stay there and everything, but we didn't. Oh wait." I pretended to think for a minute. "Didn't you just...walk away without saying anything? Yeah. Yeah, I think you did."

"Well, I thought that you would be sensible enough not to wander off in an unfamiliar place all by yourself. What if you had...run into a monster or something?"

"I have a sword!"

"Yeah. You really know how to use that sword, don't you?"

Toon Link looked at the both of us before awkwardly inching away, around the corner and out of sight.

"Hey, you went wandering off in an unfamiliar place by yourself when you left us there," I suddenly realized.

"Well," Link said with forced patience, "I actually know how to use a sword. And I wasn't alone, I was with Fi."

"Oh yeah. A floating see-through thing with no arms. She'd be super effective by helping you out if you got attacked."

Link gave me a -_- face and then looked down at his sword, which was blinking brightly. "How can the last key piece be here?"He looked down at the solid cave floor.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out the key piece. "Baka." I walked up to Link, shoved it into his hand, then walked past him. "Toon Link? Toon Link?" I yelled, not seeing him when I got out of the cave. I walked into the fire bat cave, then came out, still not coming across any Toon Link. "Toon Link where are-" I stopped short in front of one of the monster hut things in the abandoned monster camp. A few seconds later, Link walked past me.

"Look Mia!" Toon Link held out his arms, which were occupied by a mass of fur and huge ears and adorable terrifyingness. "It must have used its ears to fly up here! Just like you said!"

"That's...uh...that's just...great." I turned and nervously ran through the rest of the camp and after Link. "...Link?"

He ignored me and sat on the ground in front of the temple.

I poked his shoulder, then skittishly jumped away. But...he didn't do anything, so I came back and poked him again. "Hey Link."

"What?"

"The sun's going down."

Link half-turned and looked out over the province and at the sky, where the sun was considerably lower than it had been when we crash-landed. He turned back and started to lay all the key pieces out on the ground. "No it's not."

"Um...yes it is."

"No, it's not." He repeated stubbornly, and started trying to fit the key shards together.

I looked at the goldish-reddish sun hovering over the edge of the horizon, then stopped eventually because it made my eyes hurt. Glancing cautiously at Toon Link, who was busy with the remlit, I sat down beside Link. He frowned a bit.

"Link?" I said over the soft noise of metal clinking together. "Don't you think we should go back to Skyloft now?"

"No."

"But...you said it yourself. It would be really bad if nighttime comes while we're down here."

"We're not leaving until we find Zelda."

Typical, stubborn video game heroes. I fidgeted with my hands nervously.

"Ahh..." Link growled. "Stupid key..."

I could tell he was losing patience from the way he puffed out his cheeks and batted at his hair as it kept falling into his eyes.

"Did you...find all the pieces?" I asked.

"Yes."

"That was kind of fast."

"I guess."

I looked at the metal pieces. Then I took the one he was holding and tried fitting the jagged edge against a slightly similar jagged edge on another piece.

Link frowned.

"Hang on," I strained and pushed and tried to force the two pieces together.

"It doesn't fit." Link took them away from me and dropped them back on the ground beside the other ones.

"Wait! Yes they do. I almost got it!"

"Stop."

"...Fine." I sat back and grumpily watched as he eventually managed to find which pieces fit where. They all magically fused together a few seconds later, and he ended up with a seamless, star-shaped piece of metal.

"There." Link picked up the key and stood up.

"Hey Link?"

He looked down at me. "What?"

"The sun's going down."

"...Yeah. I know."

"That's kind of a weird key," Toon Link observed, coming over, Akuryou walking beside him. I tensed and started scooting away, then froze when the remlit padded right up to me.

"Mew!"

"Eep!"

"Yeah." Link answered Toon Link and turned and walked towards the temple doors, which I just now noticed had two yellow dragon designs on them.

I sat there frozen as the remlit sat down between me and the temple. It stared at me all creepily without blinking of moving. I may have just imagined it, but I swear it narrowed its eyes and started to lower itself into an attack position.

"Eeeeeek!" I jumped up, ran around the remlit, and over in between Link and the temple door.

He lowered the key from where he had been trying to fit it into the star-shaped keyhole. "Mia, move."

I ignored him and huddled against the door.

Link grabbed my shoulder and moved me over.

"... D:" I said, seeing the remlit walking towards me. I turned away, covering my face with my hands. To think I would be adorabled to death by a remlit while Link just stood there and let it happen.

"Mia?" Toon Link asked. "What's wrong?"

Link answered for me. "She's terrified of remlits, remember?"

Toon Link peered closer at me. "Why are you so scared of remlits?"

I nervously opened my eyes. "Because it's evil...!" I whined, tensing up as the remlit came closer and...

Sat down and started licking its paws all innocent-like.

"Okay, that's just creepy." I inched away, back towards Link who had just fitted the key into the door and was now stepping back.

"Watch out," he grumbled irritably as I bumped into him again.

The temple doors magically slid open, letting out a blast of hot air. I frowned and glanced back behind my shoulder, where the sun was inching closer and closer to the horizon. "Last chance! Turn back now, or be stuck here forever!" I told Link.

He exhaled loudly and stepped around me.

I watched him walk into the temple. "Great. Just...great."

"Mia?" Toon Link asked.

"What?"

"We should probably take Akuryou with us, right?"

"Nu- No!"

"But he's so fluffy!" Toon Link whined.

"But it doesn't want to come anyways." I said happily, noticing that the remlit was backing away from the open door and looking displeased, probably because of all the heat wafting out.

"Aww..." Toon Link watched it go.

"Hey, its fluff would have been pretty flammable," I pointed out, looking pointedly at the doorway, which probably led to lava. "So don't look so sad. And plus, if it found us once, it can probably find us again..." I shuddered at that creepy thought.

"Okay..."

Toon Link slowly followed me down the really long staircase that led into the temple. The walls on both sides of us were bare of torches or anything, but we didn't really need them because it grew brighter the further we went down. And warmer. Soon, we were stepping off the last step and onto a path made of blue tiles. There was a random bird statue by the wall over to our left and some other weird stone things along both sides of the blue path that might have been statues at some point in time.

"It's so hot down here!" Toon Link gasped.

"Yeah...that's probably because of that." I pointed towards the middle of the room to where the blue-tiled path abruptly ended in lava.

There were a bunch of floating platforms conveniently spaced at regular intervals, forming paths across the lava to different places in the huge room. Lava occasionally spouted randomly in random places, and the sound of ominous, super hot bubbling mixed with the irritating sounds of the fire bats that were flying around.

I walked up to where Link had stopped at the end of the path. "Hey, don't fall in. It would probably hurt. A lot."

Link stepped back, then jumped onto the nearest floating platform.

I nervously eyed the distance between where I was standing and the platform. It looked kind of far.

"What's wrong?" Link was watching me.

"...N-nothing..." I mumbled, then jumped forwards and fell onto the platform, causing it to wobble a bit. "S-see? I wasn't scared."

"I didn't...say you were scared."

"...Oh."

Link looked boredly back at Toon Link, who had his eyes glued to the staircase. "What's with him?"

"His remlit decided not to come." I explained cheerfully. "Which...is actually kind of sad, because in a place like this, there's probably tons of opportunities for unfortunate accidents to happen."

Link frowned and jumped to the next floating rock.

"To the remlit." I added. "And accidentally, of course."

Link kept frowning.

"What?"

"There are two paths." He muttered.

"Well, why don't you ask Fi which way to go?" I suggested.

He eyed me. "...Aren't you supposed to know that?"

"What?"

"Which way to go. Isn't that why you came? To 'guide'?"

"Um...kind of...?"

"Well for someone described in the ancient texts as a guide, you're not doing a lot of guiding," He said indifferently, then jumped to the next rock, which was smaller.

I looked away, suddenly wishing I hadn't breezed through this temple as fast as I could when I was playing the game. "Hey Toon Link! Are you coming?"

"...Yeah, I guess." He wandered over, then blinked and looked at all the lava. "Are we inside of the volcano?" He brightened. "Cool!"

"No, not cool." I eyed the bubbling lava. "Scary."

I hurriedly jumped across two more floating platform rock things to where the blue-tiled path resumed above the lava and split into two ways.

One way went to the left and led to a small room with a cluster of fire bats hanging on the roof over the entrance. The other continued straight ahead to more floating rocks and lava. Way on the other side of the room, I could see a door-shaped object separated from the raised stairs a few feet in front of it by more lava.

Link took the left path, taking out his sword and slashing at all the fire bats that dropped down and swarmed around him when he got close.

"Why's he going over there? It's just a dead end." I leaned my weight on one leg and scuffed at the ground with my boot as I waited for Toon Link to catch up.

"Maybe he wants to talk to that Mogma in there." He suggested.

"There's a Mogma in there?" I stopped scuffing at the ground and looked, trying to see around Link, who was standing in the entranceway.

"Yup! That green haired one from earlier, I think,"

"Cobal?"

Toon Link thought for a minute. "Yeah, I think so."

"Hmm..." I tried to remember what Cobal was doing there. To...tell Link where the dungeon map was or something. I think.

While we were waiting, I used the time to make sure that the sailcloth wouldn't fall out from behind my back and into the lava because that would be bad. I gathered my hair across my shoulder and tucked it into my sweater.

Link turned, stepped over the dead bats on the ground, and ran back to us.

"What did he say?" I asked him.

"Zelda was here." He said, absentmindedly adjusting his shield. "She apparently got dragged away by Bokoblins."

"...Oh. That's not good."

"No," Link agreed, then sped up and started jumping across the floating rocks without hesitating.

"Hey, wait!" I ran after Link, Toon Link following me.

Looking very worried, Link climbed up a short, random staircase in the middle of the lava. He stepped onto a small platform in front of the door, which I was now close enough to see that it was actually an upright drawbridge. Thing. On both sides of the platform were two gear things with ropes stretching from them to the top of the closed bridge door, keeping it closed.

"So...what's your Zelda like?" Toon Link asked Link.

I cringed.

Link glanced at him. "What?"

"Is she a princess too? Did she get kidnapped?"

"...No." Link turned and went to look at the gear things.

"She's not a princess," I explained to Toon Link. "She's from Skyloft too. She fell off of her Loftwing and through a cloud barrier and down here."

"She fell off her bird? You saw her?"

"Well, I wasn't actually there." I told him. "About that time is when I was falling out of the sky, I think. After I got to Skyloft, some...other stuff happened, and I ended up going with Link down here, to the Surface."

"Why?" Toon Link asked.

"Because..." I paused. "Um..."

"Because Fi said that it's the only way for her to get back home." Link said. "Though, I don't really see what difference it makes whether you come with me or not." He said to me, then raised his sword and slashed at the rope connected to one of the gears. It fell away, and the bridge lowered halfway.

"Well if I hadn't have been there, you probably wouldn't have been able to get back to Skyloft when Ghirahim nearly killed you." I reminded him.

"..." Link walked over to the other gear.

"Ghirahim?" Toon Link looked confused. "What's a Ghirahim?"

"You really don't want to know."

Link cut the second rope and it went spinning out of its gear. The bridge fell down all the way and landed on the platform we were on, providing a way to go keep following the blue-tiled road and head into the next area, which also appeared to be filled with lava. A few feet away was a green, scaly lizard thing that had armour and weapons, and looked considerably more intelligent than the Bokoblins.

"Yay...!" I hid behind Toon Link.

Link ran forward.

I rolled my eyes.

Luckily for him, Fi flipped out of his sword and hovered in front of him, making him stop. "Master Link, I am detecting new enemies ahead that appear to be creatures of very significant physical ability. While you are targeting an enemy, you can call me. Then I will share any data I have on that enemy."

"Alright." Link waited for her to disappear back into his sword before taking it out and running straight at the lizard thing, which was pretty huge.

"Baka" I observed.

A few seconds later, Toon Link pulled out his sword and ran forwards too.

"Make that two." I shook my head sadly and then dove behind the wall.

"Target locked: Lizalfos." I heard Fi say. "This unmistakable monster is equipped with an arm guard made of hard iron. Great physical prowess makes it difficult to predict its movements. Because you have defeated zero of this enemy type, I am unable to analyze your battle performance rating with this this opponent."

"Yay!" I peeked out from the wall. "Go Link!"

The Lizalfos spun around, trying to knock Link off his feet with its tail, which had a spiky ball at the end. Link jumped back and then swung his sword forwards, but the monster raised its arm guard, shielding against Link's attack.

Link pulled his sword away and stepped back as the Lizalfos began to circle around him in a very unnerving way, keeping all its weight on its back feet as if it was about to-

"Uhm...Link?" I frowned. "I think it's going to-"

"Look out!" Toon Link ran forwards. "It's going to-"

The Lizalfos leapt forwards suddenly, knocking Link to the ground.

"...Do that." I winced. "Uh...Link?" I raised my voice as the monster started knocking him around with its arm guard. "Link? Get up."

Link started thrashing around, trying to knock the Lizalfos off of him, but the Lizalfos wasn't going anywhere.

I started freaking out. "Toon Link, do something!"

Toon Link ran forward and started hitting at the Lizalfos's armoured back with his small sword, which didn't really do much. Link started hitting at it awkwardly from below, glancing blows that also didn't do very much.

I watched this for a few seconds, unimpressed, and then came out and started inching past them and over to where the blue-tile path once again ended in lava. About halfway from where the path resumed was a sunken statue of something, with only the front of the face sticking out of the lava. There were bomb flowers growing all over it somehow. I frowned, trying to remember what was supposed to happen next. Obviously something to do with bombs. I sighed, then spun around as the Lizalfos screeched and knocked Link away; he went flying and landed in front of me.

"What, can't you kill that thing already?" I looked down at him.

He glared up at me, and I crouched down and reached into one of the bags on his belt, nervously keeping one eye on the monster a few feet away.

"What are you- AHH!" Link yelped as the Lizalfos jerked away from Toon Link and spun around to face us, holding up its massive knife thing.

"Ahhhh!" I agreed, fumbling around faster. When I felt the slingshot, I pulled it out and jumped out of reach of the monster's tail. The Lizalfos go distracted by Link again, I trotted back over to the lava, put one of the seeds that I also found in Link's pocket in the slingshot, raised it, and awkwardly pulled back the elastic.

I missed. The seed went falling into the lava and immediately exploded with a small exploding noise.

"Darn it." I raised the slingshot and tried to aim more carefully this time since this was the last seed.

I missed again. _And_ the stupid slingshot band snapped back onto my hand.

"Argh!"

I contemplated throwing it into the lava, then decided that wouldn't be a very good idea and went to look for more seeds instead. There had to be some around there somewhere, because what if you happened to be out of ammo in the game when you got to this part? Nintendo wouldn't be so mean as to make you go all the way back to Skyloft just to get some seeds, would they?

Ignoring the fighting noises going on behind me, I walked over to some dry grass growing in the cracked dirt, pulled out my sword, and slashed at it. "Da na na naaaa!" I picked up the deku seeds that fell out and struck a pose.

But Link and Toon Link were too busy fighting to notice. Link was pinned up against the wall, Toon Link had started hacking at the Lizalfos's tail, and the Lizalfos started making a horribly annoying pained sound, apparently not pleased.

I winced at all the blood-ish liquid all over the ground and then took the seeds back to the lava, a little disappointed that no one had noticed my moment of smartness.

This time, I actually hit the statue, but not one of the bombs. "Argh! Why is this so...hard!"

Behind me came a really loud and obnoxious dying sound. I turned around and saw the Lizalfos twitching around on the floor. Link was leaning on his sword, which was going through the Lizalfos's chest.

I hurriedly looked away after noticing more blood spreading out onto the ground. "Eww."

Toon Link came up to me, all sweaty. "Whatcha doing?" He panted, and wiped his arm across his face. There was a little blood on his tunic.

"Eww..." I said again. And then, while pointing to the bombs that were over there, answered, "Trying to hit those bombs over there."

"Why?"

"Because...they're there?"

"Oh. Here, let me try."

"Okay." I handed the slingshot over to him. He picked up a seed from the small pile beside my feet. "Don't worry if you don't get it the first time or hundred." I told him as he put the seed into the elastic. "I still haven't gotten it, and I must have tried about a billion times-"

Toon Link released the elastic. The seed flew straight at the statue and bounced off a bomb, which immediately started smoking.

"...What?!" I exploded. "I've been trying to hit that forEVER!"

Toon Link shrugged. "I guess I'm just more used to using equipment like this,"

"That's not fair..." I grumbled, then looked over at where Link was lying on the ground. "Are you dead?" I demanded, but my words were lost as the bomb detonated. Really loudly.

**BOOM!**

Once my ears stopped ringing, I looked over and saw the rest of the statue break into pieces and fall into the lava, mostly everything except the giant eyeball sinking out of sight.

"Mia!" Link stumbled up behind us, looking alarmed. "What did you do?"

"Why is everything automatically my fault?"

"Because it usually is?"

"Uh..." Toon Link stared down at the statue eye, which had rolled through the lava and come to a convenient stop right in front of us. "What do you think this thing supposed to be for?"

"Hmm...maybe so we can roll over there?" I pointed to the other side of the lava.

"That's just dumb. We'd fall off if we tried to get on there." Link said.

"Well how else are we supposed to get across?"

"I could just throw you two..." Link suggested slowly.

"What?! No!" I backed away a few steps.

"Look." Link said impatiently. "There isn't room for all of us to go at once, and it's not like I could just send it back for you two if I somehow did manage to get over there."

"Eh..." I briefly considered his previous offer. "No."

"Fine." Link said, and then started walking around the edge of the lava.

"Uh...what are you doing?" I asked as he stopped along the far side.

He stared at the pieces of the statue that were still above the lava and then backed up a little bit.

I suddenly realized what he was trying to do. "You're crazy! ...What if you fall in?"

Well...he would probably just magically end up at the entrance to the room, minus one heart or whatever, but he probably didn't need to know how I knew that.

Toon Link watched wided-eyed as Link narrowed his eyes, then took a running leap out into the lava. I sucked in a breath, and then let it out only when the slightly slanted statue piece Link landed on didn't sink.

Link jumped to the next statue piece, which was a lot bigger and flatter. "Are you coming?"

"No," I said, but Toon Link ran over to where Link had jumped from.

"Come on, Mia. The sooner we get across the lava, the sooner we can get out of this temple and away from the lava!"

"...Good point...I guess." I walked over to him. "I wish your sand wand worked on lava somehow...and made it like, able to walk on and stuff..."

A little ways away, something alive was sticking out of the lava slightly and staring at us with big, yellow eyes. Probably one of those lava-spewing fish things. I stared back at it nervously, then looked down and blinked.

"Okay...Well...here it goes..." I nervously extended my leg and stepped onto a floating piece that was close enough to get to without jumping. It held me and didn't sink, much to my relief. "Well...okay. This...this isn't so bad," I laughed nervously, then jumped to the next piece.

Ahead of me, Link turned around. "Mia, come over here," He said, and jumped to a little side platform thing with a Mogma on it.

The Mogma jumped a little as Link jumped down beside him. I recognized him as the one with the red hair from earlier, Ledd.

"Hey! Nice timing, pal!"

I jumped down beside Link. "So you were able to dig your way in."

"Yeeep." He grinned. "You know, that was an excellent idea. I'm so glad I thought of it!"

"Uhm...you didn't."

He seemed or pretended not to hear me. "Hey! You showing up here just now must mean we're connected somehow. You know, like fate or something."

"..." I stepped slightly behind Link.

"Anyways, do me a favor and get my bomb bag, okay?"

"Wait, what?" I came out from behind Link. "Why would we do that? And who brings a bomb bag with them into a place filled with lava anyways?"

"Well, sometimes we get stuck underground." Ledd said. "Just go find it for me, okay? I was behind that rock looking for treasure when those lizard creeps showed up." He pointed to a wall filled with boulders. "I panicked and hit the road, but it looks like I dropped it."

"Okay..."

"Yeah, it's a bag for carrying around bomb flowers. I can't imagine not having one." Ledd continued. "Anyways, it's back there... Do me a favour and go get it back for me?"

"Okay." Link said, then started walking along the wall, where the platform turned into just a tiny path with the wall on one side, and lava on the other.

"What are we doing?" Toon Link walked up beside me.

I waved my hand at Link. "Oh, he's just going to find a bomb bag that Ledd accidentally dropped."

"Hey, those lizard things are pretty scary," Ledd defended himself. "And big."

"Yeah, sure."

"Aren't you going with Link?" Toon Link asked me.

"I'm sure he'll do perfectly fine all by himself."

"I'm going with him," Toon Link decided, then ran off and started inching along the scarily narrow path.

"Suit yourself." I watched him disappear around the corner.

Figuring it would take them pretty long to get all the way around to the other side of the blocked path, I sat down against the wall and watched those huge lava fish things jump around a little ways away, shooting streams of lava out of their mouths. My sweater was damp, and my hair all sticky; it was so hot in there. "I hate lava."

"Well, at least you're not covered in fur." ~~~~~SDEDEDED

"Yeah, I guess." I looked at Ledd, then noticed his claws and was reminded of something. "Hey, you know those digging mitts you guys gave us?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you have more?" I demanded eagerly, scooting closer to him.

"Uh, probably. I think so. Why?" He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Well...you guys probably don't need them, right? I mean, you have claws."

"Yeah, so?"

"So can we have like, two more pairs? Please?"

They _would_ be really helpful for those annoying parts later in the game.

Ledd leaned away from me a bit. "Uh...I dunno..."

At that moment, Toon Link came running back around the corner. "Look out! We found a bomb flower!"

"Ahh!" I dove to the ground as Link came running behind him and hurled a smoking bomb flower right at the boulder-filled wall.

**BOOM!**

I covered my head as small pieces of rock went flying everywhere. "Link! You baka!" I glared at him once the world stopped spinning.

"I told him to warn you," Link dusted off his hands and looked at Toon Link. "Didn't you warn her?"

"Yeah. Like, two seconds before you came running up," I pushed myself up and then noticed that Ledd was gone. "Aw, you scared him away! I was just about to convince him to give us his other digging gloves."

"Why do you need more digging gloves?" Toon Link asked.

I shrugged. Toon Link frowned. Link walked over to the door that had been behind all the boulders.

Like the big golden door back in the forest temple, it was covered in elaborate carvings that didn't make much sense because I couldn't read Hylian. There was a big green gem in the middle of a circle carved into the door, and on either side was a statue of one of those lizard monsters that we had run into earlier.

Link crouched down and pulled at the bottom. The door slid upwards and Link went inside, Toon Link following him.

I got up and slowly wandered in after them, blinking in the weird red light. Then the door slammed back down and iron bars slid down also, trapping us in.

I panicked for a minute, and then realized that there didn't seem to be any enemies or anything anywhere. In the middle of the room were four round platforms close together, all floating on lava. There was lava pouring in from holes near the ceiling.

"Uhm...Link?" I walked up to where he was standing beside a lit torch in the ground, and staring very intently at the lavafalls. "Why did the door just get blocked if there's nothing in here?"

"I don't know," he muttered.

"Mia." Toon Link said.

"What?"

"Mia?"

"What?" I asked a little louder.

"M-Mia!" His voice was squeaky this time and full of panic.

I turned around. He was huddling between the door and a Lizalfos that had come out of nowhere. It noticed us, made a creepy hissing noise, and lunged forwards.

"Ahh! Ahhhhh!" I turned and ran around Link, towards the floating platforms on the lava.

Behind me, I heard the _clunk_! noise of something, probably Link hitting the Lizalfos's arm guard with his sword.

I stepped onto one of the platforms to get as far away as I could from the Lizalfos, which seemed a lot more aggressive than the last one we had run into. Then I bumped into something as I was backing away and froze. And looked up.

There was another Lizalfos, freakishly big and staring down at me, its yellow eyes all narrowed and evil-looking and stuff.

"Ahh! Ahhhhh!" I started to run away but tripped on the edge of the platform and fell.

When I rolled over onto my back, the Lizalfos jumped over, stood over top of me and snarled, raising its knife weapon thing.

"Eeeeek!" I rolled to the side and could practically feel the blade slam into the ground where my arm just was; it was that close. I awkwardly scrambled to my feet and started running back towards Link, but the Lizalfos jumped in front of me again, preventing me from getting off of the floating platforms.

I slid to a stop.

It inched closer, still in that weird, about-to-jump-and-kill-you stance.

"Eeeek!" I turned and jumped to the platform beside me. The Lizalfos copied my movements. I backed away a few steps. The huge talons on its feet scraped against the ground as it hissed and stepped closer.

My mouth went dry, and I reached behind me and pulled out my sword with shaking hands.

The Lizalfos glanced at my weapon and stopped, then started advancing again, apparently deciding that I wasn't much of a threat. It was probably right.

"Uh...um..." I desperately tried to recall fighting moves, any at all, and failed. Apparently my brain doesn't work too well when I'm scared half to death. "Aw crap."

The Lizalfos crouched even lower, looking like it was about to attack any second.

"Ahhh!" I turned and started running, trying to get anywhere that was away from the freaky lizard.

It suddenly jumped in front of me _again_, cutting me off _again_. I squeaked in surprise and stumbled backwards, tripping over something, and falling...yet _again_. Today was not my day.

I found myself on the ground looking directly up at the Lizalfos' disgusting, pointy teeth as it leaned down for whatever reason. I barely felt it step on me to hold me in place, even though I could very clearly see its talons digging into my arm.

When it knocked the sword roughly out of my hands, I started shaking. I don't think I've ever been scared more than I was at that moment. I commanded my arms and legs to move, to thrash around, to do anything, but my brain was too paralyzed to send the message and just screamed random, depressing, doomed thoughts at me.

The Lizalfos snarled and then jerked back its head to screech triumphantly. I whimpered.

The sounds of Toon Link and Link fighting, and the soft rumbling of the lavafalls slowly faded into nothing.

They say that just before you die, your life flashes before your eyes.

What flashed before my eyes was just Groose presenting me with a rusty dagger earlier that morning.  
It seemed like years ago. So much had happened since then.

_"Ooo, goody. A potato peeler."_

_"It's a DAGGER. And this is the hilt. Say it."_

_"Ugh, would ya just show me how to use it already?"_

The sounds of fighting and lavafall-ing resumed, everything stopped being flashbacky, and I opened my eyes.

The dagger! That Groose had given me! The one that was on my belt which I had forgotten about until now!

The Lizalfos was still making creepy happy noises and not paying much attention to me, so I was able to reach down with the arm that wasn't pinned down and grab the hilt of the dagger. I took a deep breath and slowly slid the small weapon out of its sheath. Then I whipped my arm around and plunged the blade straight into the monster's scaly foot.

It shrieked and jumped away, and I was able to get up, run over, and grab my sword, which had been kicked a few feet away.

"Mia!" Toon Link was running towards me. Behind him, Link was stepping away from the motionless body of the first Lizalfos.

The second Lizalfos turned towards the running noises Toon Link was making. Link came up and distracted it while Toon Link snuck around behind it and slashed at its neck. The Lizalfos gave a gurgling screech. The relief, as it fell over dead, was kind of overwhelming.

"Ahh..." My head suddenly started spinning and I slumped to the ground.

"Mia!" Toon Link ran over.

Link pushed him out of the way and looked down at me.

I stared up at him and slowly sheathed my sword. "I'm not okay. Just in case you were wondering."

He dug around in one of the bags on his belt and pulled out a bottle of red stuff. "Here."

"Eh..."

"It's potion made from heart fruits." He told me.

I reluctantly took it, pulled the top off, and swallowed a mouthful. I felt a little better after that, but no less thirsty.

"Thanks." I corked the bottle. Link took it back as I stood shakily on my feet and followed him over to the blue and gold treasure chest that had appeared in the middle of the platforms.

"Ooo! What is it?" Toon Link asked as Link grasped at the lid.

"How do you have so much energy?" I asked him. He looked as if the events of the past few hours hadn't taken any sort of toll on him.

He shrugged.

Link pushed open the chest, reached in, and pulled out a bag made of brown and blue cloth.

"This must be a bomb bag," He said, turning it over and seeing a crude pattern of a bomb flower painted into the fabric.

"Heh." I grinned. "Ledd lost his bomb bag in a treasure chest."

"Well, those monsters probably found it and put it in there," Toon Link said.

"I know, I was just trying to be funny," I told him. "Apparently it wasn't that funny."

The bars lifted up off the door on the other side of the room, and we all walked over. The air felt a little cooler once we were outside, but it was still hot, almost unbearably so. I struggled to breathe in the thick air.

Ledd was back. "Heyyyyy! You found my bomb bag!"

"Yup." Link said.

"Sorry to put you through that." Ledd chuckled a little. "I guess I owe you one now! So...uh...let me have it..."

"No, wait!" I stepped in front of Link before he could comply. "We...kind of might need that."

Ledd peered at me. "What? You want to borrow my bomb bag?"

"Uh, yeah. Can we have it please?"

He thought for a moment. "Oh, right. You're looking for your friend," he remembered. "Well...you sure have put yourself out there, getting this far... Hey! That reminds me! How's MY pal?"

I looked at Link. "That Mogma you talked to earlier. How was he?"

"Good," Link answered after thinking for a minute. "Worried," He added.

"He's worried? About me? What kind of pal am I, putting him through that?" Ledd looked depressed, his long ears lowering. "You must be worried too, not knowing if your friend is dead or not..."

Link flinched.

"But I'm not letting you borrow my bag, though. Nope."

I narrowed my eyes and stepped forwards, preparing to get all violent and stuff. "Look, you-"

"I'm GIVING it to you!"

I stepped back. "Oh. Well, in that case...da na na naaaaa!"

"Just don't blow yourself up..." Ledd warned before turning and digging back into the ground.

"Here, Mia." Link pushed the bag into my hands before turning and heading back towards the narrow ledge that disappeared around the corner.

"Wait, what? You're giving this to me why?"

"So you have something to carry too. Come on." Link said over his shoulder. "There's a way from over here that we can get to that door over there," He said, pointing at the door on the other side of the lava.

"O-okay..." I held tightly onto the bag and started following him across that ledge, which was pretty tiny and made me nervous. But I made it across without loosing my balance, and we went up three step-like platforms, and through a short hallway lined with torches. As if it wasn't already enough fire in here. Link lifted the door at the end of the hallway, and we all went in to a similar room with less lava.

At the end of the blue-tiled path was...a shiny slope made out of huge golden tiles.

"Well...that's a little odd," Link said, and then walked forward and started climbing up.

"Ugh..." I sighed. My feet and legs and everything were already killing me, and this slope looked even steeper than all those sand hills we had to climb earlier. "I'm just going to wait for you down here, okay?"

Link ran over to the side of the slope and stopped in a little alcove in the wall. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because. And hurry up."

"Aww..." I started looking for the best way up, and noticed that there was nothing preventing us from falling into the lava flowing down to the right of the slope. I mentally noted to stay away from that side, and then told Toon Link too.

"Hey, see that side? Stay away from it."

"Okay."

I sighed again and started climbing up the hill.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't at all slippery, like its shininess suggested. It was actually pretty grippy. My boots didn't slip one time as I climbed up to where Link was waiting.

"Can't you hold this?" I grumbled, holding out the bomb bag to him. "It's kind of annoying."

Link sighed, took the bag from me, and put it into one of the bags on his belt.

I stretched my fingers, sore from holding onto the rough material of the bag so tightly for so long.

"Ugh..." Toon Link came walking slowly up the hill. "When is this temple going to be over?" He sighed and flopped down on the ground.

"As soon as we finish going through it." Link nudged him with his foot. "So...get up."

Toon Link grumbled a bit, then reluctantly got up and pushed the end of his hat away from where it had flopped in front of his face.

We climbed up the rest of the hill, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but still pretty tiring.

"Yay," I said when the slope finally flattened out.

"Yay," Toon Link echoed tiredly.

Link said nothing, just kept walking forwards. As IF that climb hadn't affected his invisible stamina meter. Thing.

I frowned as I then turned the corner and saw another golden hill.

"Noooo!" I collapsed to my knees dramatically.

"Mia, come on," Link said, pulling me to my feet again without even asking.

"Whyyyy?" I lamented as he dragged me over to the second slope.

"Mia, it's just a hill. And plus, look on the bright side; we must be getting close now."

"...Meh."

To our left was a wall, and on the right, the thick flow of lava oozed slowly downwards, giving a weird orange light to everything. The higher we climbed, the hotter it got.

"It should be illegal to be this hot anywhere," I gasped when we were about halfway up.

Link said nothing, but I saw that he was panting too.

"Mia..." Toon Link muttered, trudging along beside me. "Are we almost there?"

"I think so..."

I was about ready to collapse when we got to the top.

Toon Link flopped down on the ground beside me, and then sat up a few seconds later. "Whoa...!"

I looked at what he was whoa-ing at and saw a massive stone dragon head sticking out of the wall near the ceiling. Its mouth was open, and from it came the lava that flowed down beside the golden hill.

"Wait, how does anybody build something like that without, like, dying?" I frowned.

"There's a door over there," Toon Link said, pointing to the lavafall. There _was_ a door behind the lava flow. A big one too.

"Hmm..." Link said, then looked to the left of the dragon's mouth, where there was a long staircase leading to the steepest path I had ever seen.

"Um...yeah, no." I sat down on the ground beside Toon Link. "Not going to happen."

Link rolled his eyes and started walking tiredly towards the staircase.

"What a trooper." I watched him climbing up those stairs, and then looked down at Toon Link, who had curled up a little. "Hey, wake up!"

He blinked. "Do you think this temple is almost over?"

"Well...that door kind of looks like a boss door, doesn't it?"

Toon Link looked over at the door behind the lavafall. "Yeah, it does. It's really big," He said, and yawned.

I yawned too. It was probably already early morning, and the warm air wasn't making me any less sleepy. For a while, we just sat there. Somehow, my eyes closed without me noticing, and the noise of the lava started to get softer...

And then a low rumble rudely interrupted my almost dreams.

"Mia!" I thought I heard someone say.

"Go away," I mumbled, and shifted around uncomfortably on the hard ground.

"Mia! Wake up!"

The rumbling noise was getting louder, sending vibrations through the ground underneath me. My eyes snapped open. Toon Link was shaking me and repeating my name over and over. I sat up, looked in the direction of the rumbling, and saw a huge boulder rolling down the slope really, really fast.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" I got up, grabbed Toon Link, and dragged him over to the side as the boulder bounced over the stairs. It went flying straight into the stone dragon's mouth with a sharp smacking sound, and bits of rock flew everywhere.

I stared, sort of in shock as the slow drips of lava leaking around the boulder stopped, and the path to the boss door became accessible. Then I remembered Link.

I jumped up and ran towards the stairs. "Link? Link!"

He wasn't on the stairs.

"Link? Link? Link?!"

"Mia?" I heard faintly and ran towards the sound. A little ways up the slope was another alcove in the wall, into which Link had apparently thrown himself.

"Link?" I ran up. "Link, are you okay?"

He twitched. "I'm fine."

"Gods, don't scare me like that! Without you, I'd be trapped down here, you know."

"Here, hold this." He turned around to face me and held out a weird, golden thing that looked like a twisted-up dragon.

"Um, okay..." I took the dragon thing, and suddenly recognized it as the boss door key.

Link got up and I followed him as he stumbled back down the slope and down the stairs.

Toon Link was waiting, wide-eyed. "You didn't get flattened!"

Link winced and rubbed his right arm before taking the dragon key back from me and walking towards the boss door.

"What happened?" Toon Link ran up beside Link. "Where did that big rock come from?"

Link shrugged and jumped across the gap where the lava had been falling. "At the top of that path was a chest with this in it," he waved the key, "and when I grabbed it, that huge rock just...fell out of nowhere."

"But why didn't you get flattened?"

"There was a little cave thing in the wall." Link explained. "I ran into that and the boulder rolled past." He pressed the dragon key firmly into the similarly-shaped keyhole in the door. With a small rumble, the door slowly opened inwards.

We all stared at the ominous darkness for a few seconds. It was pretty dark. And ominous.

"Erm...I'm just going to wait out here." I turned away.

"Suit yourself." Link said.

I spun back around. "Wait, that's not what you're supposed to say! You're supposed to say, 'No, Mia, come on! I would never leave you in a creepy place like this, all by yourself'!"

"Yes I would," Link muttered.

I silently ran after him. "You know Link, you may pretend to dislike me...but deep inside, you actually hate me!"

He looked at me with a blank expression, and then turned away. "That doesn't make any sense."

Behind us, the huge door mysteriously closed, just like the one in the other temple had. It was really dark in that room, darker than anywhere else in the temple. Smoke floated through the air, making it even harder to see. A little light came from some lava somewhere, and by it I could see...

Another staircase.

"...You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Link sighed. "Come on, we're almost there."

"You don't know that," I grumbled as we started climbing up.

The light was brighter when we got to the top of the stairs, which led to a wide, circular platform with a bunch of bombs in the middle. Link ignored them and walked straight through and towards another, short staircase.

"Master Link," Fi said, and came out of her sword to hover in front of him. "I detect Zelda's aura in the surrounding area. I detect an especially strong reaction from this chain."

Link looked down at a broken chain on the ground.

"I calculate the probability that Zelda was bound by it recently at 95%."

Link said nothing.

"I surmise Zelda was somehow able to escape and proceed along this path. I suggest we continue with all possible speed." Fi said, and flipped gracefully back into her sword.

Link immediately ran forwards and up the second set of stairs.

I ran after him, to the top of the stairs, and saw...

Another slope.

"Stupid slopes."

Link was already almost halfway up it.

I hesitated, then ran forwards too. It was more of a limp than a run. Actually, it was rather pathetic. But Toon Link and I soon caught up to Link, who had stopped in the middle of the path and was staring upwards.

Panting a bit, I slowed down and stopped beside him. "What?"

Link didn't respond. He almost looked horrified.

I followed his gaze up to another large dragon head statue near the roof and...

Someone wearing a grossly tight jumpsuit. Thingy.

"Oh, it's you," he said, looking down at us and not sounding particularly pleased. "Let me see... No, that's not it. This is so very embarrassing, but I seem to be at a loss for your names."

"Mia, who is that?" Toon Link whispered, looking up at Ghirahim with huge eyes. "And how did he get up there?"

"He's the Demon Lord-"

"Ghirahim," Link interrupted.

"That's what I was going to say," I muttered.

"Sure."

Toon Link blinked. "_That's_ Ghirahim?"

"Sadly." I said.

"Not that your names matter much, really. To tell you the truth, I'm feeling a bit frustrated, and right now I just need someone to vent to." Ghirahim said. "I heard that my underlings had finally captured the spirit maiden, so of course I rushed over here." He flipped his hair. Gross. "What can I say? I was excited. Flustered, even..."

"Hey Link," I said quietly. "Don't you think it's kind of weird that he has one pointy ear and one round one?"

Link shushed me. "Be quiet Mia."

"She had once again..." Ghirahim lowered his voice, speaking so softly that we all had to strain to hear him. Though I really couldn't care less about what he was saying.

"You see, what I'm trying to say is..." He whispered even quieter, then fell silent for a moment.

Then he exploded without exploding, if that makes sense.

"THAT GODDESS-SERVING _DOG_ ESCAPED WITH THE GIRL!"

We all stepped back a few feet.

"I MUST have the spirit maiden in order to resurrect my master! I MUST HAVE HER!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"I got a little carried away there, didn't I?" Ghirahim straightened up. "I don't deal well with...complications to plans I've laid out so carefully. It's a character flaw of mine." He sighed, and then looked down at me.

I looked around with shifty eyes.

"Ah, but something good can still come from this day!" He smiled widely. "I've had all this bottled-up anger smoldering deep inside of me, and now I can release it."

He looked positively overjoyed. Which was positively scary.

I turned around and started pulling on Link's sleeve, not being able to shake the horrible feeling that something really horrible was going to happen.

"There's someone special I'd like you to meet..." Ghirahim said, and slowly flicked out his freakishly long tongue.

"Link, let's go,"

"Mia, wait!" Toon Link looked at me. "He's going to introduce us to someone! What if it's the other Link's Zelda?"

"...I seriously doubt it."

"Mia, stop," Link hissed, and pulled his arm away.

"Oh, don't be shy...mini-skychild..."Ghirahim smiled wickedly. "I need to vent all this unhealthy anger, and your agony is such a great stress reliever."

"Freak," I mumbled.

"It won't take any more than a few minutes with my...friend before you're charred to a satisfying crisp. And let me tell you, that will put a spring in my step!"

"You..." I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're...you're pretty psycho."

He smiled again, and raised his hand, and snapped his fingers and disappeared into a bunch of sparkly yellow and red and white diamonds.

I let out my breath in a whoosh.

"M-Mia? Where did he go?" Toon Link looked around nervously. "He's not going to jump out from somewhere, is he?"

"Probably."

Then there was another rumbling noise.

The dragon head that Ghirahim had been standing on started to shake. And the mouth opened. And then a massive boulder came rolling out.

"Ahhhhh!" I turned and started running.

"Ahhhhh!" Toon Link started running.

"..." Link also started running as the freakishly large boulder kept rolling after us.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhh!"

"..."

The stairs were too far away. They were too far away and the boulder sounded like it was gaining speed, and the ground was rumbling a lot, and it was really hard to run and stay upright.

"I hate boulders!"

"Mia, be quiet." Link grabbed me and Toon Link and pulled us roughly to the side. We all fell to the ground as the boulder went rolling past, smashed into the the wall at the end of the stairs, and exploded into pieces. Little bits of rock pelted us, and when I looked up from shielding my eyes, I saw a bunch of dust and smoke hovering in the air.

I coughed; my eyes were watering from all the dust. Link groaned and sat up. I checked to make sure Toon Link wasn't dead. His hat had fallen off, and his tunic was covered in dirt and dust, but I was pretty sure we all looked like that.

He slowly rolled over. "Ow...what did you guys DO to that guy to get him so angry?"

"Nothing." Link grumbled. "He was just like that."

Toon Link crawled over and picked up his hat. "Well...he's gone now, right?"

"Yeah...I think so." Link stood up, winced, and then froze.

I looked where he was looking and saw that the dust and smoke and stuff was clearing. There was a thing there. This thing that looked like a boulder cracked in many pieces. It had legs. Six of them and bright orange like the lava. And...and...a mouth, which looked like a lava-filled, horizontal crack in its body. It made a noise like only rock monsters with six legs can.

Link and Toon Link started running up the hill as the thing started crawling towards us. It was fast.

"Eeeeeeeek!" I threw myself further to the side. For a minute, I was looking up at rock-matter and orange legs as the thing ran over me, and then next I was laying there panting, trying to figure out if I was dead or not.

I looked back up. The thing was still chasing Link and Toon Link. I quickly got up and ran back down the hill, down the stairs, climbed up a few ledges, and stopped only when I got to the last ledge. Once there, I hugged the rock pillar that came down from the top of the ceiling.

From up where I was, I could see the monster's orange glow through all the dirt and stuff it was kicking up as it further pursued Link. I squinted in the hazy light, and then winced as I heard a muffled _boom!_ of a bomb going off. Then the thing started rolling backwards down the hill and towards me.

"A-" I started to scream, but my throat hurt so much from all the smoke and the screaming I had done earlier that I decided not to and just crouched down, held onto the pillar, and hoped I was high up enough that the thing wouldn't hit me.

_Smack!_

There was a really loud smacking sound as the thing collided with the wall a few feet in front of my face. It wobbled and collapsed, apparently stunned. Pieces of rock went falling off of the thing after hitting the wall, exposing weird, lava-like stuff underneath that was probably lava.

Toon Link and Link came running back down the hill. Link shoved his bomb bag away, pulled out his sword, and started hacking at a part of the monster that I couldn't see from this angle. The thing shuddered and made a crackling noise that sounded like fire.

"Link, run!" I screeched, holding onto the pillar as the rock thing raised itself up and started stomping forwards.

"Stay here!" Link ordered Toon Link before turning and running back up the slope.

Toon Link ran to the place where I had avoided the monster, and waited there for the thing to run past. Then he ran back down to me and climbed up the ledges. "That...that thing is...is really fast!" He panted, his eyes huge.

I managed to nod. "Link probably wants you to be here to...to get it when he...knocks it back down," I told him, wrapping my arms further around the pillar and trying to stop shaking. "So...be ready, okay?"

Toon Link nodded, and then anxiously looked up to where the monster had stopped and was spitting fireballs up at Link. Link rolled out of the way of one and started towards a bomb flower growing on the ground, then jumped back as another fireball came in between him and the bomb.

I winced as the thing shot out more fireballs, all of which Link managed to dodge. He grabbed the bomb flower, pulled it out of the ground, raised it above his head, and hurled it straight at the thing.

**_Boom!_**

The bomb exploded, and the thing flew backwards and started rolling down the hill.

"Get ready!" I told Toon Link as the thing came closer. He grabbed his sword.

The thing slammed into the wall again, more pieces cracking off. Toon Link jumped down and started slashing at it. I winced as weird-coloured liquids went spraying everywhere.

"Eww..."

Then the monster jerked away and stood up again, and Toon Link ran away as it started coming after him, leaving no way to get around it. "Ahhh!"

"Hey!" Link yelled, holding a smoking bomb flower.

Toon Link looked up, saw him, and then swerved as far to the side of the slope as he could without falling off. Link rolled the bomb.

_**BOOM!**_

It exploded much closer this time, and made my ears hurt a little.

The rock thing fell a shorter distance than last time, but still went slamming into the wall just as hard.

Link joined Toon Link in running back this time, and they both attacked at the exposed monster. Most of the rock pieces had fallen off, and I could see an eye, big and bright blue with a huge black pupal rolling around. The thing tried to get up as Link and Toon Link slashed at it, but then its legs collapsed and refused to cooperate. It screeched once, a horrible sound that made me want to clamp my hands over my ears, but my arms were glued to the pillar and I couldn't gather the will power to make them move.

The monster started flailing around, its legs thrashing and spasming crazily. I ducked on the other side of the pillar as it screeched once more, arching up off the ground, holding this position for a few seconds more, and then collapsing in a jumble of limbs and rock pieces. The light in its eye dimmed and disappeared, and its whole lava body started to turn black, almost like it was turning to stone. It shuddered, and then exploded into dust and sparkly diamonds.

Toon Link collapsed to the ground, and Link bent over with his hands on his knees, looking absolutely exhausted. Above their heads, a heart container materialized, floating gently down to the ground. They both ignored it or didn't notice.

I let go of the pillar, climbed down the ledges, trotted over, and picked the heart up. It was light and pretty, red and covered in golden swirly designs. It slowly grew small enough to fit into my hand as I held it.

"W-What...where do we go...now?" Toon Link asked.

Still breathing heavily, Link raised his sword. It started glowing blue, faintly at first, then more strongly the longer he pointed it towards the hill. He sheathed it and started walking forward. Toon Link got up and followed him. I put the heart container into my pocket, stepped over the large pieces of broken rock on the ground, and headed after them.

At the top where the slope flattened out were some bomb flowers, heart fruits just growing out of the rocky ground, and a door with the Goddess's crest on it. The symbol turned golden as we approached, and the door disappeared, leaving an empty doorway in the rock wall.

We walked into a room filled with pillars, white stone walls, and many lit torches. Up a few steps was a circular platform with two figures standing on it. One was wearing a long white dress and had golden blonde hair, and the other was tall, thin, and dressed in strange clothes.

The tall figure gestured to a...a door made of...golden light.

The girl nodded slowly and started to walk forwards.

"Link," I nudged him, "say something!"

"Zelda!"

Zelda stopped and turned. Her eyes widened when she saw Link. The other figure turned as well, and stared with amber eyes. Her hair was whitish yellow and short, except for one long, thin braid that nearly reached to the orange belt around her waist.

Link's face lit up. He ran forward.

"Link!" Zelda stepped forward but stopped as the figure extended her arm and blocking her way.

"You cannot go to him Your Grace. Remember what we discussed. Restrain yourself. Focus on the task at hand."

Zelda's face fell.

Link stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Zelda?"

She turned away, looking at the ground. "I...I have to go. I'm sorry, Link."

Link stared without speaking as she walked slowly into the golden light. It enveloped her, and grew slightly brighter for a moment. The figure turned and started walking forward as well.

Link scowled and ran up the stairs, stopping in his tracks when the figure turned and stared at him fiercely.

She raised her hand. "It took you far too long to get here. Looking at you, I fear the Goddess is mistaken in her choice of agents." She glanced at me, and I quickly averted my eyes. When I looked back, she was looking at Link again. "If this failure is any indication, you have no hope of defending Her Grace from those who seek to assail her."

Link stiffened.

She lowered her hand and smiled slightly. "Do my words anger you, boy?"

There was a tattoo of an elaborate eye on her forehead in red ink. There was also a white teardrop shape underneath her left eye and thin black lines painted underneath, giving the impression of permanently narrowed eyes.

"Do my words sting? Let them." She declared harshly. "If I had not come when I did, Zelda would already have fallen into the hands of the enemy."

Link lowered his head, and looked pretty dejected, standing there covered in dirt, with scratches and tears in his clothes. Mind you, we probably all looked like that.

"The truth of it is you were late. You were late and you failed to protect her."

Link looked down, and his hair hid his eyes for a minute. Then he looked up. "Where is Zelda?"

"I sent Zelda ahead to learn more of the fate in which she is destined to play a part. Listen well, Chosen One." She raised her voice. "If you wish to be of help to Her Grace, you must summon a shred of courage and face the trials laid out before you. Only when you have completed the trials will you be of use to Zelda. No sooner. Am I understood?" She raised her chin and stared directly at Link. He stared back unwavering, with a small, challenging glare. She smiled a little, as if amused by his determination, then turned and walked into the golden light, disappearing as well.

The light faded, soon disappearing completely. Toon Link and I walked up the stairs and stood beside Link.

"I was too late." He stared at the small spring of water that had been hidden behind the light.

I wasn't really sure how to respond so instead I brushed a piece of smoking rock off of his shoulder.

Toon Link pointed at the water. "Look, fairies." He looked at Link. "Do you have an empty bottle?"

Link wordlessly reached into one of the bags on his belt and pulled out his bottle, which had only the smallest traces of red potion left in it.

Toon Link took it and splashed into the water, trotting towards the cluster of pink fairies flying around near a small goddess statue and crest.

"...Link?" I asked hesitantly.

He pulled out his sword, raised it skyward, and shot a blue beam of light at the goddess crest. It seemed to come to life when hit with the light and spun around, less sparkles shooting out than last time.

Link sheathed his sword, not looking at me.

Fi jumped out before I could say anything. "Master, I have a message written in the language of the gods of old. Allow me to translate it for you." She raised her arms above her head and started dancing around the water again. " 'From the edge of time I guide you, the one destined to carry out the goddess's mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds has passed through the Earth Spring and makes her way to a fated place.'' "

A golden trail of light followed her as she skated across the water, spinning around Toon Link a few times before coming back in front of Link and I.

" 'The parched desert of Lanayru... That is where the chosen will pass through a Gate of Time into a distant world...' "

Above her, golden light appeared in the statue's hands, and another tablet appeared. This time, it floated quite gently over to us. Link reached out and took it from the air.

"...Da na na na..." I said quietly.

Link looked up at me. Then his gaze moved to the statue of the goddess and he exhaled. "Come on. Let's go find Zelda."

Toon Link came up carrying the bottle with a pink fairy in it, and handed it to Link. "Where are we going now?"

Link stepped down into the water and towards a door at the very back of the chamber. "Back to Skyloft." He answered, and pushed the door open.

We walked out onto a little outcropping on the side of the volcano.

Daylight was already seeping into the sky. The light felt strange to my eyes, which were use to the dark haziness of the temple. I blinked away the slight pain and breathed in the air that smelled much better than the stuff that had been in that hot, stuffy, lava-filled place.

Apparently it had cooled down during the night. It was still pretty hot, but the air felt much colder outside of the temple. I suddenly noticed that I had a headache, and had a little trouble walking straight as I followed Link over to a small bird statue beside the door.

"Wake me up if I fall asleep before we get there, okay?" I grabbed onto his neck.

He shook his head. "No, go with him," he looked at Toon Link, who was blinking sleepily. "I'll go first, and get my Loftwing, and then you two come up and I'll get you."

"O-okay..." I let go of him and stepped back as he pulled out his sail cloth and shoved the tablet behind his shield. "Don't lose that."

"I won't."

I frowned at the sky. "Are you sure it's light enough for this?"

"Yeah. Probably." He turned and stepped into the wind he that started blowing out of the ground in front of the statue. I watched him being carried up into the air until he was nothing but a small speck in the sky.

"So...we're really going up into the sky?" Toon Link asked.

I pulled out my sailcloth. "Yup..."

He grinned. "That's so cool!"

"No, not cool. Scary." I corrected him. "Okay so... don't let go, okay?"

"Okay. What's going to happen?" He asked and grabbed onto my neck.

I opened the sailcloth and stepped up to the statue. "Oh...just some wind. No big deal."

"Ahhh!" Toon Link yelped and his grip around my neck tightened as we were suddenly speeding upwards. The wind billowed in the sailcloth, sending us higher and higher. I clenched my teeth against the pain in my arms and forced myself to ignore the fact that we were already really high above the ground.

"Clouds!" I warned and closed my eyes as we sped towards the thick cloud barrier. Misty dampness hit my hair and face and the air turned cool for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes, the clouds were below us. We had finally stopped being blown upwards and were sort of gently hovering in place, floating downwards slightly.

"Whoa..." Toon Link breathed.

I swallowed and tried not to be sick.

"Mia," Link said.

I looked and saw him circling above us. He slowed and stopped, the Loftwing flapping its red wings and keeping them in one place as they slowly began to lower down until they were beside us.

"Here," Link reached out.

"Hurry up," I mumbled to Toon Link. My arms were getting numb.

He let go of me with one hand and Link grabbed him and pulled him down onto the Loftwing.

"Mia, can you turn around?"

I kicked my legs a few times but nothing happened. "Nope."

"Okay, hold on..." Link carefully maneuvered closer, so that he was in front of me and I was out of reach of the Loftwings' wings.

"Try not to move or do anything, or we'll all probably die." Link said to Toon Link.

Toon Link gulped.

I rolled my eyes at Link as he grabbed the end of my sweater. "You're so optimistic."

He didn't say anything, but grabbed one of my arms and pulled me down onto the Loftwing behind him. I let go of the sailcloth with one hand and hurriedly grabbed onto his neck.

Link turned back around and I squeezed my eyes shut as we started moving. The familiar sick feeling that appears whenever I'm somewhere high, was starting to show up. I stiffened as we swooped suddenly, making my stomach turn.

"Stop holding on so tight. You're going to leave bruises." Link said.

"S-sorry," I muttered and let go a little.

Skyloft appeared in the distance, but it seemed forever before it started to get close. All I wanted to do was...get to solid ground, and get all the sand and dirt and _crap_ out of my clothes and hair.

"I can't believe we were down there for that long..."

"It that...Skyloft?" Toon Link asked as Link circled overhead.

"Yup." Link answered.

I squinted down as Link directed his Loftwing towards a diving platform. Skyloft looked pretty empty, as if everyone was still sleeping. I couldn't _wait_ to go to sleep.

But...all thoughts of sleep went out of my head when I saw an unmistakable someone standing on the diving platform.

"Oh god. Why? Why now?" I moaned.

"What's wrong?" Toon Link asked, twisting around from in front of Link to look at me.

I slumped miserably against Link's back. "It's Groose."


End file.
